Sir Keir Starmer’s Brexit reset would require the UK to cough as much as Brussels

Sir Keir Starmer’s Brexit reset will require payments to Brussels in a ‘pay to play’ arrangement, it emerged on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister has said he wants closer alignment with the EU and is preparing to bring a Bill before Parliament as soon as next month.

It will give ministers the power to ‘dynamically align’ with the bloc in certain sectors, including on agrifood and energy.

This will mean complying with regulations from Brussels in sectors such as food standards, animal welfare, pesticide use and electricity.

It will also require MPs to surrender their sovereign right to make laws to the EU for the first time.

And future sector-by-sector agreements will require payments for access, in what two EU diplomats described as ‘pay to play’ to the FT.

Meanwhile, the UK will not get a vote on future laws and regulations made by Brussels as it is no longer an EU member.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Brexit reset will require the UK to cough up to Brussels

On Tuesday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch warned against reopening Brexit wounds and accused Sir Keir of taking the country back to the ‘bad old days’.

‘We had a vote 10 years ago, the country voted to leave the European Union,’ she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

‘Leaving the European Union means leaving the single market, leaving the Customs Union. What he’s doing is taking us back to those bad old days where we were all arguing.’

The Bill is expected to be introduced in the next few months and carried over into the next parliamentary session.

It will introduce the powers for a mechanism to allow the UK to comply with regulations set by Brussels, known as ‘dynamic alignment’.

Sir Keir has already signed a political agreement on agrifood and negotiations are ongoing on the UK joining the bloc’s internal electricity market.

The EU has said that the UK will have to pay for access to these sectors. Tensions over money have already scuppered negotiations over London joining a 150billion euro defence fund.

Alignment on future sectors would be decided on a value for money basis, Government sources said, though said these were expected to be administrative only.

Sir Keir said last weekend that he wanted the UK to pursue ‘even closer alignment with the single market’ if it is in the national interest.

Brussels dictates that single market access requires not just an acceptance of EU rules but also payments into the bloc’s budget and freedom of movement.

The PM’s spokesman said on Monday that it was possible the UK could negotiate further sectoral access in what is known as a Swiss-style deal – and could be prepared to pay for it.

‘The PM has been clear throughout that he will make sensible, pragmatic choices in the national interest,’ he said.

However, when asked whether he was prepared to send money to Brussels to secure cheaper trade in goods, the PM told LBC: ‘Well, nobody is talking about paying more to Brussels.’

Ministers are planning for the EU reset Bill to run in parallel with negotiations with Brussels, meaning MPs will be voting on it before they conclude, the Guardian reported.

This would hand ministers significant powers to forge closer future regulatory ties with the bloc, without Parliament having a say – a move likely to be opposed.

Government sources have acknowledged that they are braced for major battles on the legislation.

But they say they are prepared to have the fight and would invoke the argument that alignment would improve growth and could have public support.

The Tories and Reform UK will oppose the legislation attempt, while the Liberal Democrats have vowed to amend the Bill to increase pressure for a customs union.

More than a dozen Labour MPs rebelled when the party held their last opposition day vote on the issue.

It came as diplomats told the FT that Sir Keir’s Brexit proposals were badly timed and suggested he would have no more success than his Conservative predecessors.