𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Sir Keir Starmer’s Brexit betrayal is set to cost the UK almost £3billion every year. The Prime Minister is determined to roll back Brexit with an “ambitious” new trade deal and is not ruling out a full return to the EU single market.

But Brussels is demanding that the UK pay for reduced trade barriers and has instructed officials to begin talks on “a permanent mechanism for an appropriate financial contribution”. It has emerged that the cost to the Treasury could reach £2.9billion annually if full access to EU markets is granted. The cash would be spent on schemes to develop the economies of poorer member states.

Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are quietly signing Britain up to send billions back to Brussels with no say, no vote, and no scrutiny.”

Sir Mel said: “Having already handed over half a billion to rejoin the Erasmus student scheme and a further half a billion to France to stop migrant crossings, Labour must come clean now about the true cost to taxpayers.

“When hardworking families are tightening their belts just to get by and businesses are being taxed to within an inch of their life, the country deserves transparency, not another blank cheque.”

A similar arrangement is already in place for Norway, which is not a member of the EU but has access to the single market and pays £390 million per year. The European Union says the UK’s fee will reflect the size of its economy, which is more than seven times that of Norway.

Sir Keir is planning a new summit with the EU to ratify elements of his “reset” with Brussels that have already been agreed, but also to go further with “more ambitious” plans.

To add insult to injury, the meeting is expected to take place around June 23, the 10th anniversary of the historic Brexit referendum.

Asked last week if he wanted to rejoin the single market, Sir Keir said: “I’m ambitious that we can do more in relation to the single market because I think that’s in our interest.

“Obviously, this is a matter of negotiation and discussion, but the summit we have this year will not be just be a stock-take summit … it will be a deliberate ambition on our part to go further than that and co-operate more deeply, including in the economic sphere.”

The EU is warning that market access will require the UK to make a financial contribution to its “cohesion policy”, designed to lift up poorer regions of member states.

The Council of the European Union said in a statement: “The agreement on the UK’s financial contribution towards reducing disparities between the EU regions by increasing the bloc’s economic, social and territorial cohesion is part of a consistent EU policy that couples the granting of market access to a third country with a fair financial contribution reflecting the benefits derived from such access.”

The amount the UK pays will depend partly on the level of access it has to EU markets, and initial talks will focus on plans for Britain to join the trading bloc’s internal market for electricity. Payments will then be expanded as more access is granted.

The EU statement said: “The agreement would establish a permanent mechanism for an appropriate financial contribution of the UK towards reducing economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the EU.”

It continued: “The financial contribution of the UK should appropriately reflect the relative size of the UK’s economy and the proportion of the internal market in which the UK aims to participate in line with consistent EU policy.”

Government sources argue that the EU has set out its position, but formal negotiations have not yet begun. No financial contributions have been agreed upon or made.

The UK will only agree deals that are in the national interest and provide value for money, insiders stressed. The goal will be to drive economic growth and lower costs for British businesses and consumers, according to sources.

Sir Keir’s determination to improve links with the EU follows a deterioration in relations with Donald Trump’s White House, following the Prime Minister’s refusal to back the war against Iran. Concern about the future of the special relationship with the US has also given added urgency to plans to increase defence spending by billions of pounds each year.

Critics say a return to the single market now would mean the UK was forced to obey rules agreed by the EU. Sir Simon Clarke, director of think tank Onward and a former Conservative cabinet minister, said: “Less than two years into Government, and they are taking us back into large parts of the Single Market, this time entirely as a rule-taker.”

Sir Keir spoke by phone to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen last week, with No 10 saying they “discussed their shared ambition to further strengthen the partnership between the UK and the European Union, and the need to continue strong support to Ukraine”.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “They agreed to keep in close contact as this important work progresses in the lead-up to the next UK-EU Summit.”