When David Frost led UK negotiations with the EU on a free trade agreement five years ago, he was supported by a 100-strong Cabinet Office team. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘EU reset unit’, also based in the Cabinet Office, is 100-strong too, including two permanent secretaries. Given Labour’s insistence that it is not seeking to renegotiate Brexit, but merely to improve relations with the EU, why appoint such a large, high-powered unit?
Setting aside the harsher criticism that the ‘EU surrender unit’ is a machine to reverse Brexit, government ministers and the PM remain tight-lipped about the officially titled ‘European Union relations secretariat’. It does not appear on the Cabinet Office website. Nick Thomas-Symonds, minister for the Cabinet Office and for European Union relations, was evasive about headcount and role when recently asked a written question by Conservative MP Richard Holden. Lord Kempsell’s tabled question met a similar response. Yet the direction of travel is clear.
Joint procurement with the EU is a risk Starmer is likely to take
Keir Starmer’s high-level visits to EU leaders since coming to power have been clearly designed to signal to the EU publicly that the UK wishes closer relations.
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