Keir Starmer insisted Brits are ‘tired’ of Brexit rows today as he faced a grilling from MPs over the price of his ‘reset’.
Making a statement to MPs, the PM argued that the package he unveiled alongside beaming EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen would ‘drive down bills and drive up jobs’.
He told the House the deals would ‘release’ the country from the ‘arguments of the past’ and showed the UK is ‘back on the world stage’.
Sir Keir has claimed measures such as doing away with border checks on food can boost the economy by £9billion a year by 2040. Brits could also face less red tape when travelling.
However, opposition leader Kemi Badenoch said the premier had ‘failed’ and his deal was a ‘total capitulation’ to Brussels.
She pointed to huge climbdowns, including bowing to French demands for access to UK fishing waters until 2038. That was far more than the four years Sir Keir originally offered.
Britain will also have to align with the bloc’s food standards and accept its legal jurisdiction, potentially hampering other trade agreements.
And the UK faces contributing Brussels coffers in return for the easing of borders, as well as to access EU defence contracts and connect carbon trading markets.
Reform leader Nigel Farage was not in the Commons for the PM’s statement.
Touring broadcast studios this morning, industry minister Sarah Jones refused to give any figure for the annual costs – although she said it would be less than £9billion.
She told Sky News: ‘We are not paying, through any of this, for access to markets. That is not what we are doing. We are not rejoining the EU.
‘Where we will pay, and these things will be negotiated, where we will pay is where there are joint costs that need to be paid.’
She added: ‘Whatever administrative costs we have to pay, and they will be negotiated and I don’t have an answer for you now on what those costs are, they will be outweighed very significantly by what we estimate will be a £9 billion advantage a year by 2040.’
Alarm has been raised over other broad commitments Sir Keir has made, without any clarity over the detail.
A youth ‘experience’ scheme has been agreed in principle, potentially allowing a form of free movement for 18-30 year-olds. But there is no indication of how many people that will cover.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan suggested part of the purpose of the scheme would be ‘filling vacancies in some of our key sectors’ – despite Sir Keir vowing a crackdown on eye-watering immigration levels.
‘I hope this agreement is a springboard for further deals and closer alignment in other key sectors – such as our financial services and our major creative sectors – all vital to our capital’s prosperity,’ Mr Khan added.
Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage have both pledged to scrap the deal if they win power at the next election.
But in a mechanism branded the ‘Reform clause’, Brussels would be able to impose swingeing tariffs on British exports if the fishing agreement is torn up early by a new government.
That is because Sir Keir has agreed to amend the text of the trade treat signed by Boris Johnson in 2020.
Mrs Badenoch branded the agreement a ‘total sell-out’, adding: ‘We will reverse this terrible deal at the first opportunity.’
She accused ministers of ‘backsliding on free movement’, adding: ‘Today, we found out that after months of secret negotiations away from Parliament, the media and the public, the Labour Government – Keir Starmer’s Government – has surrendered many of the gains we secured, on sovereignty, on money and control over our laws, to the European Union.’
Speaking in the garden of Downing Street last night, the PM told EU and UK business figures that the deal was ‘good for bills, good for jobs, good for borders’.
He also hailed a ‘mood change’ in the relationship with the bloc, adding: ‘The EU and the UK wanting to work together, all of us prepared to say let yesterday be yesterday, we are looking forward to tomorrow.
‘We are not going to litigate old arguments, we are going to go forward in the spirit of what we do together, we do better.’
The PM hit out at the ‘myth that next year everybody was free to do what they like’ if he had not extended the fishing deal with the EU.
Sir Keir was earlier accused by the Conservatives of having ‘surrendered’ many of the gains they negotiated post-Brexit.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC that the UK was in a ‘better place than any country in the world’ on trade.
‘The first deal and the best deal so far with the US, we’ve got the best deal with the EU for any country outside the EU, and we’ve got the best trade agreement with India,’ she said.
‘Not only are these important in their own right, but it also shows that Britain now is the place for investment and business, because we’ve got preferential deals with the biggest economies around the world.’