Andy Burnham is preparing a draft Brexit reset deal with the European Union that would align Britain with Brussels’ food rules and create a limited youth mobility scheme, according to reports ahead of a UK-EU summit.
A proposed 200-page agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary standards is being circulated among EU member states. Related drafts covering emissions and trading, together with a joint statement for European leaders, are also understood to be in circulation.
The agreements are intended to be finalised at a summit in Brussels on November 20, where Mr Burnham hopes to set out the next stage of the UK’s relationship with the bloc.
Draft deal includes EU food and animal health rules
The central element would require the UK to align with EU rules covering food safety, animal health and plant health.
A separate “youth experience scheme” would allow EU nationals aged under 30 to live, work and study in Britain. British citizens would be offered the same rights across the EU.
The proposals could also involve spending up to £450 million a year to allow EU students to access reduced tuition fees at British universities.
Since Brexit, students from the EU have generally faced international fees of between £11,400 and £38,000 a year for undergraduate courses, compared with the £9,790 domestic rate for British students. Brussels wants EU students to pay the same fees as British students while studying in the UK.
Mr Burnham has said the agreements under discussion could add the equivalent of more than £10 billion a year to the UK economy by 2040. He has also said Treasury calculations suggest a deal could increase GDP by 0.4 per cent.
“Now, that is a number that you cannot ignore,” he said.
Brexit critics warn against becoming a rule-taker
The proposals have prompted criticism from politicians who argue that closer alignment with the EU would undermine the purpose of Brexit.
Speaking at a rally in central London, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: “The reason why we left the EU was so we could make our own rules.
“But if what the Government is signing up to is just following EU rules, then what was the point of leaving?
“They are too scared to actually use the Brexit freedoms that we have.”
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said returning to alignment with Europe would “crush Britain’s competitiveness” and risk Britain’s sovereignty over trade policy.
Mr Burnham has told MPs that he is “open to a discussion about our relationship with the EU in the longer term”, prompting questions about whether the Government could eventually consider a wider return to EU arrangements or freedom of movement.
However, he has sought to distance the current proposals from a return to full freedom of movement. In an interview broadcast on Tuesday, he said: “I have not proposed freedom of movement coming back.”
He said there should instead be an “honest discussion” about how immigration had changed since the Brexit vote, arguing that shorter-term migration from Europe followed by departures had been replaced by higher levels of long-term settlement.
Mr Burnham also said there was public appetite for a debate about Brexit, rejecting warnings that reopening the issue would revive old divisions.
