Earlier I said we were likely to get a ministerial statement in the Commons on the deal with the EU. In fact, we are not getting one today. Presumably Keir Starmer will give a statement in the Commons tomorrow. But we are going to hear from Kemi Badenoch, who is holding a press conference at 3.15pm. Q: When will these agreements enter into force? Starmer says he thinks both sides have worked quickly to get to this point. Work on the summit started in earnest last autumn. It was achieved in six months. That is real progress at pace, he says. And he says both sides told their negotiating teams to go “at pace” to finalise what has been agreed. Q: How much will the UK have to contribute to enter the EU defence procurement agreement? Von der Leyen says this has been agreed by all sides. It is ready to go, she says. It should be finalised within the next few weeks, she says. And that’s the end of the press conference. Q: Are you close to a deal with Spain on Gibraltar? Costa says he thinks they are not very close to a deal. After Starmer intervenes, Costa corrects himself and says he thinks they are not very far from a deal. Q: Under Erasmus+, will EU students studying in the UK pay the same fees as UK students? Starmer says there is no change to the current rules on tuition fees. Von der Leyen says they have agreed to work towards Erasmus+. That will be good news for young people, she says. Q: Last year the European Commission took the UK to court over non-implementation of parts of the previous agreement relating to the rights of EU citizens in the UK. Will you implement those agreements? Starmer says his is a government that sticks to what it has agreed. Von der Leyen says, when new rules are agreed, sometimes the commission has to take action to get legal clarity about what they mean. Q: [From Christopher Hope from GB News] The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation says this is worse than Boris Johnson’s deal. (See 11.47am.) Have you been stitched up like a kipper? Starmer says the supermarkets have welcomed this deal because it will cut prices. Under the Johnson deal, fishing access would have been renegotiated every year. There would have been no stability. And he says fishing communities will get a £360m transformation fund. Q: [To von der Leyen] What do you say to the Tories who say they will reverse this? Von der Leyen says good neighbours work together. She says she thinks this will bring positive results. She urges Hope to ask the question again in a few years’ time when people have had the chance to see the benefits of the deal. Q: [To Costa] Do you want to see the UK rejoin the single market and the customs union in your lifetime? Costa says the two sides have agreed an ambitious road map. But it is not about rejoining the single market or the customs union. Q: What is your message to Brexit supporters who will view this with suspicion? Von der Leyen says this will benefit people in Britain. It is “a new beginning for old friends”, she says. Q; [From Beth Rigby from Sky News] You have given the EU 12-year access to UK fishing waters, and you have agreed a youth mobility scheme that you ruled out last year. Isn’t this backsliding on Brexit. Starmer says this delivers on all three of his principle: driving down costs, driving up jobs and ensuring control of borders. He says the Scottish salmon industry has already come out in favour. Most of those criticising the deal came out against it before they had read a word for the agreement, he says. Q: Do you accept that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. Can you say you have done all you can to stop this? Starmer says the situation in Gaza is intolerable and unacceptable. He says he is working with allies to address his. Q: Do you view this as the start of further integration? Von der Leyen echoes what Starmer has just said about the deal being ambitious. And she says there is “a lot of work still ahead of us”. She does not really address the question about whether this is the start of further integration. Costa says this is a new partnership. Q: [From ITV’s Robert Peston] Isn’t this the worst of all worlds? The UK is again aligned with the EU, but gaining only a twentieth of the economic benefit we lost. Starmer rejects this. He says this is very good for the country. The deal is “hugely ambitious”, he says. And the security and defence partnership is important too, he says. The emissions trading changes will be very welcome for business, he says. He mentions steel, fish, shellfish, and e-gates, saying for some people that will be what they notice. And the law enforcement measures are important too, he says. He says it shows that if you focus on “deliverables”, you can make a big difference. The leaders are now taking questions. Q: [From the BBC’s Chris Mason] Haven’t you sold out the fishing sector? Starmer says the principles behind today are about bills, jobs and borders. The SPS changes will take away a lot of red tape. Over 70% of seafood goes to EU. This will help them, he says. The length of time for the agreement provides stability. Annual negotiations on fishing would have generated uncertainty. Shellfish can be sold back into the EU, he says. He end saying this is “good for fishing”. Keir Starmer is speaking now. He starts: Ladies and gentlemen, Britain is back on the world stage, working with our partners, doing deals that will grow our economy and putting more money in the pockets of working people. In the last two weeks alone, we have delivered trade deals with India and the US, and that means jobs saved jobs, creating more growth and a huge vote of confidence in this country. And he says today’s deal is a landmark one, a “win-win” for both sides. It gives us unprecedented access to the EU market, the best of any country outside of the EU or Efta, all while sticking to the red lines in our manifesto about not rejoining the single market, the customs union, and no return to freedom of movement. So this deal is good for both sides. Starmer says the SPS deal will make food and agricultural trade with the EU easier and cheaper. After a long absence, it will allow burgers and shellfish and other products to be sold again in the EU. The defence deal will open up opportunties for the defence manufacturing sector. Cooperation on emissions trading will spare British firms having to pay £800m on EU carbon taxes, he says. British steel will be protected from EU tariffs, he says. Fishing rights are being protected, he claims, and he says there is £360m for the fishing sector. And travellers will benefit from the change on e-gates, he says. Von der Leyen says the agreement on SPS rules means “more certainty, more stability for farmers and food producers”. And the agreement on fishing will mean more “long-term stability and predictability” for the fishing sector. Von der Leyen says the deal affects people, and the “millions of friendships” between people in the UK and the EU. She says she is very glad that they have agreed Erasmsus+, and for the a “youth experience scheme”. (See 11.59am.) Turning to the decision to explore the UK’s participation in the EU’s electricity market. She says: It’s good for the stability of energy flows. It is good for our common energy security, because we know that a bigger market will also be good for lowering the energy prices, and it will attract more private investment because of the regulatory stability and predictability that is there to tap into the vast potential that the North Sea offers, specifically for renewable, cheap and homegrown energy. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, is speaking now. She says the UK and the EU are “turning the page”. She says the security and defence partnership covers lots of topics. It will boost defence cooperation, she says. It is the first step towards the UK’s participation in the EU’s €150bn joint procurement programme. Costa says the UK and the EU are “stronger when we stand together”. That is the message from today’s summit, he says. From on, the UK and the EU will hold a summit every year, he says. At the press conference Costa talks about the areas where the UK and the EU have worked together, particularly supporting Ukraine. He says the UK and the EU will increase pressure on Russa via a new package of sanctions, to bring Vladimir Putin to the table. And here is the 11-page text of the defence and security pact agreed today. The post-summit press conference is starting. António Costa, the European Council president, goes first, He says this is the start of a new strategic partnership. The two sides have worked to rebuild trust, he says. The UK government has published two documents about the deal: A five-page joint statement A nine-page common understanding paper UPDATE: And the third document is on the MoD website. An 11-page defence and security pact. The British Meat Processors Association has issued a statement strongly welcoming the deal with the EU. It says that, making access to the EU market easier for meat exporters, Keir Starmer has “managed to achieve what the previous government promised us originally but didn’t deliver”. The association has also dismissed claims that the deal will mean the UK being a “rule taker” because it will aligned with the EU on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules. It says: A common misunderstanding is that an SPS agreement will mean Britain becomes a ‘rule taker’. In reality, we must comply with the rules of any of our trading partners if we want to export to them – just like America must comply with British rules if they want to send us their products. This means we have been aligned with EU rules and standards all along. The difference this new deal will make is that Britain, unlike their other third country trading partners, will benefit from true, un-fettered access to their market and massively reduced trade friction. It will boost trade and make us more competitive. Under the existing arrangement we have had to produce a mountain of paperwork to prove we comply, costing business a fortune but with no added value. This extra cost had to be absorbed somewhere in the supply chain, either through lower margins or higher prices, driving food price inflation and rendering UK businesses less competitive. Keir Starmer has said that today’s deal with the EU is about moving on from “stale old debates” of the past. He said: It’s time to look forward. To move on from the stale old debates and political fights to find common sense, practical solutions which get the best for the British people. We’re ready to work with partners if it means we can improve people’s lives here at home. So that’s what this deal is all about – facing out into the world once again, in the great tradition of this nation. Building the relationships we choose, with the partners we choose, and closing deals in the national interest. Because that is what independent, sovereign nations do. Starmer is clearly referring to the way the discussion about relations with the EU continues to be framed by supporters of Brexit as a matter of either taking back control or surrendering. (See 11.15am.) In other contexts, such as in his speech last week on immigration, Starmer is happy to talk about “taking back control”. But, on trade, he does not view negotiations in binary terms. In an interview in the Times published on Saturday, Starmer repeatedly said that he was not interested in “relitigating the arguments of the past”. Downing Street has published its summary of the deal with the UK, and it claims that it will add almost £9bn to the value of the economy by 2040. And here is Jessica Elgot’s story. Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor. A leading marine conservation group has said the row over the length of the EU fisheries deal is artificial and misses key facts about the British fishing industry, since many British trawlers are EU owned and increasingly controlled by very large firms. Phil Taylor, director of Open Seas, a conservation charity, said: The debate about the length of the fishing deal and the amount of access granted to EU boats is missing a key point, since some of the biggest UK fishing companies are EU owned, while a number of Scottish boats are still landing more than half their catch directly to the continent. Despite UK law requiring fishing quota be distributed in ways that incentivise low impact fishing, the rights to most UK fishing quotas are handed freely to businesses. And those rights can be bought and sold, allowing access to this public resource to be consolidated by those with the deepest pockets with very few conditions, such as sustainability measures, put on its use. Hall said the Scottish government’s complaints it had been ignored by UK ministers (see 8.51am), despite having policy responsibility for fisheries in Scottish waters, were also ironic. The Scottish government was now more than two years late delivering 22 fisheries management plans required after Brexit, he said. He went on: It’s time that our national fisheries authorities invest the same level of energy in establishing a fairer system to distribute quota and sustainable management of the seas as they invest in the negotiations with the EU over rights of access in the first place. Gwyn Topham is the Guardian’s transport correspondent. The Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, who has been a strong critic of Brexit, has said that it would be good for the UK to have a youth mobility scheme with the EU. (See 11.59am.) He said: It would make a big difference, generally to hospitality, retail, agriculture over here, and particularly in the regions where a lot of the hotels are struggling for staff, if those sectors could bring in lots of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish kids to come over here, even on summer jobs, it would be very helpful for the UK economy. Get them over here. They’ll come here and work and pay tax. So what? What’s the issue? The UK government was very nervous about about agreeing a youth mobility scheme with the EU because it was nervous about the proposal being associated with free movement, even though youth mobility schemes are very different. For a long time ministers claimed they were not planning to agree a scheme of this kind. Now it has been confirmed that they are discussing on. But the details have not been agreed and, according to the Telegraph’s leak of text of the deal (see 11.30am), they are going to call it a “youth experience” scheme instead. According to the Telegraph, the text says: The European Commission and the United Kingdom should work towards a balanced youth experience scheme on terms to be mutually agreed. The scheme should facilitate the participation of young people from the European Union and the United Kingdom in various activities, such as work, studies, au-pairing, volunteering, or simply travelling, for a limited period of time. It should provide a dedicated visa path and ensure that the overall number of participants is acceptable to both sides. Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor. The leader of the UK’s largest fishing industry body has lambasted the EU fisheries deal, claiming it was worse for the sector than the original Brexit treaty. Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said: This deal is a horror show for Scottish fishermen, far worse than Boris Johnson’s botched Brexit agreement. [Any] attempt by either the UK or EU to portray the new deal as a continuation of existing arrangements would be a lie, because in fact the trade and cooperation agreement paved the way for annual access negotiations from 2026. At the weekend, Sir Keir said the deal would be measured against how much it would improve job prospects and allow our communities to flourish. Giving away a national asset such as our rich and healthy fishing grounds for no discernible benefit not only fails both of these tests, but is a disgrace that will ensure the enmity of this proud industry for many years to come. Scottish fleets land a significant majority of the UK’s catch, based in ports such as Peterhead and Lerwick, with 61% of the UK’s overall capacity. Many UK boats also land significant quantities in Norway. The latest UK government landings data for 2023 found that UK vessels landed 719m tonnes of fish worth £1.1bn but the UK remains a net importer of fish, chiefly from China, Norway and Iceland. Joe Barnes at the Telegraph has published what he says is the full text of the EU-UK deal being announced today. It does not seem to have impressed the paper’s bosses (the deal itself, that is – not Barnes’ scoop.) The Telegraph website is currently dominated by an enormous headline saying: “Starmer caves in.” (The Telegraph is strongly pro-Brexit. See 11.15am.) There are strong 2019 echoes in what the Conservatives, Reform UK and all other Brexiters are saying about the deal today. This was evident in Andrew Bowie’s interview on the Today programme this morning (see 9.12am), and also on the front pages of the pro-Brexit papers. But it is worth point out that public opinion on Brexit has shifted considerably since 2019, which means this messaging is likely to be a lot less effective than it was when Boris Johnson was using it. According to YouGov polling published in January, Britons now believe that leaving the EU was a mistake by almost two to one. Steve Bray, the anti-Brexit campaigner who still stages a regular, and noisy, protest outside the Houses of Parliament, has decamped to Lancaster House this morning. But he is not protesting today. He has been playing the Ode to Joy, and has told police that what he is staging is “more of a celebration”. The Scottish Conservatives have issued a statement denouncing the fishing agreement. This is from Tim Eagle, fishing spokesperson for the Tories in the Scottish parliament. This agreement is an absolute disaster for the Scottish fishing industry. Sir Keir Starmer and the UK Labour government have not just surrendered to the European Union’s demands, they have totally capitulated to them. The deal is a shameful betrayal of our fishermen and will go down like a lead balloon in our coastal communities across Scotland. It is even worse than they feared. Jennifer Rankin is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent. EU officials have hailed the agreements with the UK as starting “a new chapter in relations”. The bloc’s most senior diplomats from all 27 member states met early on Monday to approve the three texts that are due to be signed later by Keir Starmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president António Costa. The three documents are: 1) a security and defence agreement; 2) a joint statement setting out common views on global challenges, such as the war in Ukraine; and 3) a common understanding paper – the key text pointing the way to further agreements including a youth mobility deal and veterinary agreement. An EU official said: We have entered a new chapter in our relations with [the] UK – a neighbour, an ally and a global partner. The negotiation process in the run-up to this summit went until the last minute. But negotiations took place always in good faith on both sides, and the result is very positive for both. Simon Clarke, levelling up secretary when Liz Truss was PM, former MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland and a leader Tory Brexiter, has described today’s deal as “a triumph of elite concerns”. He posted this on social media. Today is a triumph of elite concerns - youth mobility, 5 minutes quicker through the airport in Tuscany in summer - over those of working class Britain. It’s not these people, or their kids, who will miss out on jobs or have their wages undercut by EU labour. They don’t care about scarce fishing grounds being hoovered up by French or Spanish super trawlers. They don’t worry about whether British agriculture is stopped from innovating. And so it goes on. We spent 4 years battling to leave the EU properly, to avoid the utter humiliation of leaving only in part, and becoming a ruletaker. That’s not only because of the practical consequences - it renders leaving largely pointless - but also because it’s the thin end of the wedge to take us back in (“why not go back and have a seat at the table?”). Reporters were asking Keir Starmer “Have you sold out the fish?” as he arrived at Lancaster House. ITV News has the clip. All the key figures have now arrived at Lancaster House for the UK-EU summit. As Eleni Courea and Lisa O’Carroll revealed in a Guardian story at the weekend, the deal will involve an agreement for UK passport holders to use e-gates across Europe – allowing British holidaymakers to get through airports more quickly. In a post on social media, Joe Barnes from the Telegraph has a picture of what the text of the agreement says about this. Steve Baker, the former minister and leading Tory Brexiter, says that, because there is no current legal ban on Britons using e-gates at EU airports (as paragraph 16 quoted above says), this does not amount to a “win” for Labour in the negotiations. The Liberal Democrats have welcomed news of the deal with the EU as a “positive step”. In a statement, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said: These seem to be some positive first steps in rebuilding our relationship with Europe after years of a Conservative party that wrecked trust and broke our relationship with our closest allies. The prime minister must ignore the naysayers and dinosaurs in Reform and the Conservative party and be more ambitious in getting the best deal in the national interest. Lisa O’Carroll is a Guardian correspondent covering Brexit and trade. It is understood the fishing deal will run for 12 years until 2038 with concessions for fishing industries such as processing that don’t have direct access to the seas. This would mean fish processing can take place anywhere including in UK communities that ended up setting up complex and costly veterinary certification to comply with Brexit export health and safety rules Stuart Rose, the Asda chair and former Marks & Spencer boss who sits in the Lords as a Conservative party chair, has said that it is “nonsense” for his party to describe the today’s deal with the EU as “surrender”. (See 9.12am.) In an interview with Times Radio, asked if agreed with the “surrender” claim made by the Tories, Rose replied: No, it’s nonsense. I really am quite disappointed and sad that I live in a country – you know, I am a Conservative, although I am not a politically active Conservative, I’m not a politician. But to hear that the Conservatives are saying we must be rule givers and not rule takers. It’s about giving a bit, taking a bit, and understanding this is a very difficult, unpleasant world we live in. And we’ve got to make sure that for the UK public and for the UK, we do our best. That’s what we elect our politicians to do. That’s what I expect them to do. And talking about small things like surrender is pathetic. Rose, who was a leading anti-Brexit campaigner in 2016 (unlike those leading the Conservative party now), described the deal as a “win” for Britain. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, told business leaders in Downing Street this morning that the deal with the EU would be “about bringing more good jobs to our country, it’s about reducing prices in the shops for consumers, as your costs fall as businesses, and, crucially, it’s about our defence partnership with our allies”. According to Natasha Clark from LBC, the government is going to announce extra money for the fishing industry. Gov sources say new £360m extra for coastal fishing Say the EU tried to tie fishing deal to business agricultural checks, but it’s been confirmed there won’t be a time limit on those Unclear exactly what checks will be relaxed and how at the moment Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has claimed that, if the EU retains access to UK fishing waters for another 12 years, as reported, that will amount to the “end of the fishing industry. He posted this on social media. If true that will be the end of the fishing industry. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of post-Brexit relations with the EU, has posted this on social media about the reset deal agreed today. Historic day. After months of negotiations, I can announce that the Labour Government has secured a new agreement with the EU. Good for jobs Good for bills Good for borders And more… Britain back on the world stage, with a Government in the service of working people. Here is the latest Guardian story on the reset deal, by Peter Walker, Jessica Elgot and Lisa O’Carroll. And this is what they says about fishing. According to EU sources, access to British fishing waters will be granted until the end of June 2038, an extension of 12 years. In return, the agreement on easier checks for food, animal and other agricultural products, known as sanitary and phytosanitary goods (SPS), is indefinite. While the length of the fishing rights deal is likely to prompt criticism from the Conservatives and Reform UK, it is understood that Downing Street pushed back against EU demands for a time-limited SPS deal and a permanent arrangement on fishing. Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary, had a difficult time on the Today programme when he was interviewed by Nick Robinson before 7am about the EU-UK deal. Robinson was already quite fired up, having spent a few minutes rowing with a Krelmin spokesperson who claimed Ukraine started the war with Russia, and he asked Bowie four times why the Conservatives were describing the deal with Brussels as “surrender”, using the language of war to discuss a trade agreement with allies. Bowie eventually said that if the UK ended up being subject to EU laws, sending money to the EU, and allowing more EU fishing boats into UK waters, “then we will indeed have surrendered to the demands of the Europeans. Union”. The encounter has not persuaded Bowie to tone down his language. Within the last hour, he posted this on social media. If it is true that Labour has surrendered British waters to the EU until 2038, that is worse than a surrender, it is a total capitulation. Other Scottish Tories are saying the same. This is from Harriet Cross, MP for Gordon and Buchan. If this morning’s reports are true that Labour have given the EU access to UK fishing waters until 2038, this isn’t a just a betrayal, it’s a complete abandonment of our fishing fleets. And this is from John Lamont, MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk. The latest Starmer Sellout. The EU takes 7 times more fish by value from British waters than we take from theirs. So why is Keir Starmer giving European fisherman the same access to British waters for the next 12 years? Absolutely disgraceful! Many people working in the fishing industry strongly supported Brexit because they thought it would allow them to regain some of the exclusive access to British waters they had before the UK joined the EU. But they felt betrayed when Boris Johnson negotiated a post-Brexit deal with the EU that allowed EU fishing boats to retain much of the access they had when the UK was a member. This is how Toby Helm wrote it up for the Observer at the time. It is worth pointing out that if, as the Scottish Tories claim, fishermen have been betrayed today, it is just an extension of the original betrayal they suffered at the hands of the last Conservative government. Angus Robertson, cabinet secretary for constitution, external affairs and culture in the SNP Scottish government, has posted these on social media about the fishing aspect of the EU-UK deal So the UK Government has just reached a 12 year deal on the devolved issue of fishing without any recourse, involvement or approval of Scottish Government and other Devolved Administrations. It follows cancellation of last three EFRA inter ministerial meetings by UK government. UK Govt has agreed a fisheries (devolved) deal with EU in principle, without any recourse, involvement or approval of Devolved Admins. Scottish Government received no documentation or draft proposals in advance. I asked UK minister last week for this. Nothing received. Reset? This is from Joe Barnes, the Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent, on the deal. Brexit reset deal - Fishing access until 2038 SPS, no time limits on dynamic alignment CBAM and ETS is dynamic alignment No youth mobility deal, but a promise to revisit at a later under agreed parameters, including rejoining Erasmus. CBAM is the carbon border adjustment mechanism and the ETS is the emissions trading scheme. Q: Will the UK be able to influence EU rules on food standards under this deal, as Jonathan Reynolds implied? (See 8.27am.) Kallas says the there have been extensive talks about food standards. But she says the UK decided to be outside the EU, and outside the EU it does not have the same influence as countries that are inside, she says. Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, is being interviewed on the Today programme now by Anna Foster. Foster asks her if she will confirm the 12-year fishing deal figure Kallas says Keir Starmer, Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa will confirm the details later. But deals have two sides, she says. Nick Robinson puts it to Reynolds that a 12-year fishing deal would be longer than anyone was expecting. The fishing industry, which believes the EU’s current access rights to UK waters are already too generous and wants them cut back, are bound to object. Reynolds won’t confirm the 12-year figure. But he says there is a good case for moving away from having annual negotiations over fishing (which was supposed to be the process from 2026, under the original post-Brexit deal negotiated by Boris Johnson) to having a system with more “consistency”. Chris Mason, the BBC political editor, tells the Today programme that he has been told a fishing deal with the EU has been agreed for 12 years. But he says the agrifoods deal that has been agreed, reducing checks on UK products going to the EU, is not subject to a time limit. Mason says he has been told the details of the youth mobility scheme have still not been finalised. Q: Will the UK now be subject to EU rules? Reynolds says he would push back against that. He says UK and EU rules are currently aligned. If EU rules were to change, the UK would want a say in shaping them. Q: How would that happen? Non-EU states do not get a say on EU laws. Reynolds says parliament would want a say. He cites Norway as an example of a non-EU country that gets to have a say in the EU rules it has to follow. Jonathan Reynolds is now being interviewed on the Today programme by Nick Robinson. Q: Is it as simple as this – the UK wants to sell more to the EU, and they want to catch more fish in UK waters? Reynolds says there is a bit more to it than than. But he says the deal is about making people better off, and improving market access. And market access is important to the fishing industry too, he says. He says they sell 70% of their products to the EU. Q: You are signing away fishing rights for 10 years? Reynolds says the current fishing agreement, giving the EU access to UK waters, runs until 2026. Q: After that talks were supposed to be annual. Have you extended the deal now for 10 years? Reynolds ducks the question. Robinson presses him again. Q: Will EU trawlers have access to UK waters for another 10 years? Reynolds says the previous government conceded the access point. And he says having to renegotiate fishing rights every year would not be practical. In an interview with Times Radio this morning Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, did not deny a suggestion that the youth mobility scheme with the EU, that is expected to be part of the deal being announced today, might be capped at around 45,000. When this figure was put to him, he replied: I’m not going to confirm anything until that deal is officially done, because it’s obviously very sensitive. But he said the similar youth mobility schemes that the UK has with other countries are capped. He said: If you look at the 13 we already have, they are capped, yes. So I think the Conservative deal with Australia capped it at 45,000, but nothing like that number of visas is ever issued every year. He also said these schemes were “fundamentally different to what we experienced when we had freedom of movement when we were in the EU”. Downing Street sources are confirming that a deal has been done, Jessica Elgot reports. She says the EU has also dropped its demand for the extension of the current fishing deal (agreed by Boris Johnson as part of the original post-Brexit deal – and widely seen as generous to the EU) to be pegged to the length of the deal for agrifoods. (See 6.40am.) Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up from Yohnannes Lowe. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, is giving interviews this morning saying that the post-Brexit reset deal between the UK and the EU has not been finally agreed (see 7.37am), but he’s just being pedantic. It all seems sorted. It just has not been formally announced yet. Here is the timetable for how the day will unfold. 10.15am: Keir Starmer and other leaders arrive for the EU-UK summit at Lancaster House. On the UK side the lead participants are Starmer, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, and Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of post-Brexit relations with the EU. On the EU side, the lead partiicpants are Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, António Costa, president of the European Council, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, and Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner responsible for post-Brexit relations with the UK. 12.30pm: Starmer, von der Leyen and Costa hold press conference. After 3.30pm: A ministerial statement is expected in the Commons. As we have been reporting, the “core details” of a reset deal between the UK and EU were agreed in the early hours, though the final touches appear to still be being worked out. The deal covers areas such as defence, trade, fishing, and a possible youth mobility scheme that could allow British and European 18- to 30-year-olds to travel freely around Europe under certain conditions. In an interview with Sky News this morning, the UK’s trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the deal has not been finalised, with issues over agricultural products and e-gates remaining sticking points in the negotiations. He said: Nothing on these deals is sorted until it all gets sorted. There’s a deal to be done here, we’ve always said that. There are real benefits to the UK which are on offer on sorting this out, because there are massive gaps that we have with the EU at the moment. “There is not currently a deal agreed at this point,” Reynolds added. We expect an announcement on defence and security later today, which could see the UK get access to a £125bn EU defence fund - a boost for UK defence companies. The fund has taken on a new sense of urgency since Donald Trump re-entered the White House in January as the US president has signalled that America will no longer be the primary guarantor of European security. My colleagues Jennifer Rankin and Jessica Elgot have a little more detail about the fund in this story. Here is an extract from it: The SAFE fund would allow EU member states to take out loans to buy up to €150bn of air and missile defence systems, ammunition, drones and other military kit. It was proposed by the commission in March, as part of a drive to increase European defence spending by €800bn amid deep shock at Donald Trump’s rush to offer concessions to Vladimir Putin in a bid to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. Reflecting the influence of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the fund has a “buy European” rule meaning that components from non-EU countries can only make up 35% of the cost of any project. That restriction is relaxed for Ukraine and any country with a defence and security partnership with the EU. Talks between the UK and EU over a significant reset to relations achieved a last-minute breakthrough overnight, believed to be about fishing rights. However there are still some steps to be taken, reports the Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar. The talks were taking place over the weekend ahead of a key summit in London hosted by Keir Starmer with EU leaders on Monday, which is aimed at resetting the UK’s relationship with the bloc five years after Brexit. The talks were aimed at striking a deal to be signed at the summit and had gone down to the wire to resolve squabbling over long-standing issues, including fishing rights and a youth mobility scheme. It is understood a breakthrough was made over fishing rights. “The EU was insisting the government offer long-term access to British waters, beyond four-year deal proposed by UK, and was pushing for double-digit extension,” reports Pippa Crerar. “Brussels had linked fishing with agreement to drop checks and bureaucracy around sale of food, animal & other agricultural products, known as sanitary and phytosanitary goods (SPS). EU had suggested this should be pegged to same timescale as fish.” An agreement would mark a symbolic step in turning the page on the animosity that followed Britain’s exit from the bloc in January 2020. No 10’s decision to issue a press statement on Saturday presenting the summit as a done deal caused irritation in Brussels, prompting some to recall the mantra of Brexit negotiations: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
Author: Andrew Sparrow (now); Yohannes Lowe and Helen Livingstone (earlier)