𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Britain’s top negotiator with the European Union makes no secret of the fact that he voted Remain in the 2016 referendum – but pro-EU zealots who want to enlist his help in reversing Brexit are wasting their time.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, a 45-year-old father of three, cannot see a referendum on rejoining the bloc taking place while he is alive. And as the MP for a Labour heartland seat where six out of 10 voters backed Brexit, he understands the deep desire for change which drove Britons to cut the cord with Brussels.

He represents the South Wales constituency of Torfaen at a time when Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is working to oust Labour from its traditional power bases, and polling suggests Sir Keir Starmer’s party is heading for disaster in the May Welsh Parliament elections.

There has never been a non-Labour First Minister in the Cardiff parliament and it has been the biggest party in Wales in every Westminster election for more than a century. But a More In Common poll released on Friday puts Reform in first place (31%), ahead of pro-independence Plaid Cymru (24%). This comes as Labour in Westminster reels at the Mandelson-Epstein scandal and there is rampant speculation about the Prime Minister’s future.

In this moment of turmoil for Labour, Mr Thomas-Symonds is in the engine room of the Government at the Cabinet Office. And as the minister responsible for EU relations, Brexiteers watch with deep suspicion as he works to reset Britain’s relationship with Brussels.

He is emphatic there is no establishment plot to unravel Brexit.

“There 100% is not,” he says.

When asked if he thinks there will be a referendum on rejoining the EU he slams the door on that option.

“I don’t see that,” he says.

What he does see is a nation that voted “very firmly for change” and is today burdened by high living costs.

He was born in the constituency and grew up in Blaenavon, a town once famed for its ironworks and its Big Pit – where tourists can today go underground to get a glimpse of a vanished coal industry.

He argues his strategy of “ruthless pragmatism” in EU negotiations can deliver true cost of living benefits for the people in now represents in Westminster.

“My constituents [were] never telling me they were voting Brexit because they wanted to pay more for their food… Nor were they voting for Brexit to strangle businesses in red tape,” he says.

A top goal is nailing down a food and drink agreement to lower the expense of putting food on the table.

“This can make a difference,” he insists. “It is not about unravelling Brexit. It’s about delivering on that mandate we have from the 2024 manifesto.”

He is clear about the red lines in that manifesto.

“We will not go back to the single market, the customs union [or] freedom of movement,” he says. “But we will build a closer UK-EU relationship that is in the national interest…

“That is what drives me, and that is exactly what I am doing with the diplomatic work week by week.”

He has written biographies of Labour giants Clement Attlee, Aneurin Bevan and Harold Wilson. He respects leaders who win power and then use it to change Britain.

“You think of Harold Wilson,” he says, “who once said that he who rejects change is the architect of decay. And we, this Government, embrace change.”

The latest UK-wide Techne poll puts Labour on just 17%, behind the Conservatives (19%) and Reform on (30%).

“I understand your readers’ frustration that they want to see change delivered more quickly, he says. “But what I say to them is, we are – we will be – straining every sinew to deliver that change for them.”

He dismisses suggestions that “Farage clauses” are being inserted into EU deals which would make it prohibitively expensive for a future UK Government to scrap the arrangements.

“All international agreements as standard have particular exit clauses,” he says. That’s just standard. That’s nothing that’s peculiar to particular negotiations here.”

Come the next general election, when Reform UK will target Brexit-votings seats such as his, he says he will welcome the chance to defend the deals he believes will bring down the cost of living.

“If they want to go into the next election saying that they want to put all those costs back, that they want to put all that red tape back on businesses, [that] they want to risk energy bills going up, food bills going up – that is a debate I will welcome with them.”

He is just as robust when defending Britain’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“If Britain were to leave the ECHR, it would severely reduce our ability to get the agreements that we need to deal with illegal migration,” he says, insisting he shares readers’ concerns about small boat arrivals.

“We are determined to tackle it and to smash the gangs.”

Mr Thomas-Symonds lives in Abersychan – the former hometown of pioneering Labour Home Secretary Roy Jenkins – with his wife Rebecca, daughters Matilda and Florence, and son William. But even in Opposition he was dispatched across Europe to build relations with decision-makers.

He has no time for “megaphone diplomacy” but has introduced European Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič to the pleasures of Wales’ Penderyn whisky.

“I negotiate extremely hard for the United Kingdom; he negotiates hard for the EU, and that’s exactly how it should be,” he says.

The talks have unfolded with conflict raging in Ukraine and the NATO alliance with the United States looking more vulnerable than at any time in its history.

The Torfaen MP sees this as a “perilous moment for Europe” and admits: “I never thought in my lifetime that I would see a land war back on the European continent”.

He says there is “tremendous respect” for Sir Keir’s work with both European leaders and the US President – and he is adamant this is not the time for the UK to change prime ministers.

“Look,” he says. “I’ve known Keir Starmer for many years. He is a fundamentally decent man of integrity who is absolutely determined to deliver for the British people.

“Now is not the time to get distracted, turning in on ourselves, plunging the country into instability. This is not the moment to do that.

“It is time to get on, focus, deliver, and that’s exactly the message that I was saying to colleagues in recent days.”

Mr Thomas-Symonds went to the local Catholic high school in Pontypool – his wife was his sixth form girlfriend – and he won a place at Oxford where he gained a First in philosophy, politics and economics. He became a tutor at the university and also qualified as a barrister before arriving in Westminster at the age of 34.

His passion for politics was sparked by his grandmother, Olwyn, who fulfilled her ambition to become a nurse at the age of 56. He enjoyed debating with her, but she convinced him that talk must be matched with action.

He remembers discussing the challenges facing local young people as industrial jobs vanished when she delivered a sentence that sent him on his journey from Blaenavon to the Cabinet Office: “The only way you change it is to go into politics.”

“I’ve never regretted taking her advice,” he says.