𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of jeopardising the future of the UK by plotting to put Britain back in Brussels’ orbit as he fights to save his political skin. The Labour leader is expected to give a major speech setting out plans for closer relations with the European Union as he battles to stay in the top job in the wake of this week’s elections.

Sir Keir is due to make the case that closer links are “crucial” to bringing down the cost of living. This comes as he attempts to stave off challenges to his leadership and stop pro-EU voters peeling off to the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already declared that the UK’s “fate as a country is inescapably bound with that of Europe” and that “closer alignment is the right course for Britain”. There is strong concern about ongoing efforts to align British regulations with the EU amid reports Brussels will want payments of around £1billion a year for further access to the single market.

The Government is also being pressed to agree a youth mobility deal that would lack a hard cap on numbers.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel said: “Starmer is so desperate to save his own skin that he is resorting to reopening the divides of the Brexit years in the hope it will win him support.

“Starmer is so weak and focused on fighting Labour’s internal civil war that he has no answers for the major challenges facing our country and wants to take us back to 2016.

“The Conservatives are the only party with the team, the plan and the backbone to get Britain working again and deliver a stronger economy and stronger country.”

Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group of Conservative MPs, said: “Any plan by the PM to try and save his skin by selling our sovereignty to the EU would be delusional. The Labour Party’s woes are not going to be solved by just selling us out to Brussels.”

John Longworth, the former director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce who was a founder of the pro-Brexit Leave Means Leave campaign, said: “Our benighted PM Keir Starmer is putting the future of the UK in jeopardy merely in order to save his own political skin. His move to get closer to the EU serves no purpose other than ideological, and to drag down even further growth in the economy.”

Responding to the reports Brussels may demand payments of around £1billion a year for single market, he claimed the EU is taking taxpayers “to the cleaners”.

He said: “You really couldn’t make it up. The level of incompetence of the current Government is beyond belief.”

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker reminded the country of the intensity of the parliamentary struggles over Brexit in an interview with the Institute for Government.

Mr Baker, who became knows as the “hard man of Brexit” and also criticised the Covid lockdowns, said: “I’ve held the future of this country in my hands more times than I can remember. I have decided on my own authority which way votes in the House of Commons would go. I’ve at times put over 70 MPs through the rebel lobby by sending one WhatsApp message. I’ve done it more than once, more times than I can remember.”