Top Labour minister sets off for EU negotiations amid Brexit rollback plans

Sir Keir Starmer’s minister for European relations has boarded the Eurostar to Brussels this morning as the new government moves to rollback hard-won Brexit freedoms.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, one of the PM’s closest allies, shared a photo of him boarding the train to meet with EU Commission vice president Maris Sefcovic, with a promise to “reset the UK-EU relationship”.

Mr Thomas-Symonds, who was given a plumb Cabinet Office post and an office next door to the Prime Minister’s, will play a controversial role over the coming weeks as he threatens to undermine Brexit as one of the Government’s top priorities.

Speaking to reporters during the NATO summit last week, the Prime Minister outlined his hopes to begin watering down Brexit within days, rather than months.

During the general election campaign, Rachel Reeves said she wanted to seek closer alignment with EU rules in the chemicals and veterinary sectors, better touring rights for UK artists, and greater mutual recognition of qualifications for financial services workers.

The shadow chancellor said it was not an “exclusive” list, telling the Financial Times: “We would look to improve our trading relationship with Europe.

Sir Keir has also said that a new defence and security pact with the EU is “really important to us”.

He added: “I do think there is scope for a significant improvement of our defence and security relationship with the EU”.

The PM took the unusual decision of taking Mr Thomas-Symonds with him to Washington last week during the NATO summit to begin backroom talks with fellow world leaders and get the ball rolling with renegotiating Brexit.

He met Estonian premier Kaja Kallas, who is about to become the European Union’s new chief diplomat, on the sidelines of the Nato summit.

He told GB News: “I've been clear with international leaders here that we do want to reset the relationship with each individual countries, whether they're EU or not, but more broadly, and of course this being a Nato summit, Nato is the cornerstone of our defence in Europe, working with European allies on defence has never been more important than it is at the moment.”

President Joe Biden also endorsed the manoeuvring by Sir Keir to take Britain closer towards the EU’s orbit, in stark contrast to President Trump’s passionate support for Brexit.

Speaking at a bilateral press conference, the President said: “I kind of see you guys as the knot tying the transatlantic alliance together, the closer you are with Europe”.

“We know where you are, you know where we are.”

This week, Britain will host a meeting of the European Political Community at Blenheim Palace, which Sir Keir also sees as an opportunity to schmooze European leaders and press the case for closer alignment between the UK and EU.

Speaking ahead of the major summit, Sir Keir said: “Russia’s barbaric war continues to reverberate across our continent, while vile smuggling gangs traffic innocent people on perilous journeys that too often end in tragedy”.

“We cannot be spectators in this chapter of history. We must do more and go further, not just for the courageous Ukrainians on the frontlines, or those being trafficked from country to country, but so our future generations look back with pride at what our continent achieved together.

“I said I would change the way the UK engages with our European partners, working collaboratively to drive forward progress on these generational challenges, and that work starts at the European Political Community meeting on Thursday.”

A Downing Street spokesman said that the UK Government will use the summit “to discuss closer collaboration to tackle illegal immigration and greater security cooperation with European counterparts to keep Britain safe”.