UK Politics

Keir Starmer meets with Ursula Von der Leyen in Albania in 11th hour Brexit reset talksTalks on a UK-EU deal are in their ‘final hours’ ahead of a major summit with the bloc, the minister in charge of negotiations has said.Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce a deal with the EU when he meets European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa in London on Monday.The prime minister has insisted that closer ties with the EU will be “good for our borders, cut bills and boost jobs”, ahead of a summit where he could announce a deal.But on Sunday, cabinet office minister NickThomas-Symonds said the final details of the deal were still being worked out, with negotiations ‘going down to the wire’.Sir Keir is also facing pressure to be more ambitious with the deal. Urging the government to be bolder, the Commons foreign affairs committee chair Dame Emily Thornberry said: “We should be clear about what it is that we want and act with a little less caution and a lot more confidence. If we do this, there is every reason to believe the EU will respond positively.”Surrender a ‘big word’ for Nigel Farage, Emily Thornberry claimsEmily Thornberry has lashed out at Nigel Farage, claiming that surrender is a “big word” for the Reform UK leader.The chairman of the foreign affairs committee hit back at Mr Farage’s opposition to Labour’s planned youth mobility scheme with the EU, which he has said amounts to an upicking of Brexit.Speaking to LBC, Ms Thornberry said: “The public… want, if their neighbours run a small business, to be able to export sausages to France and for it not to be held up.“They want to be able to travel to Europe and not have their passport stamped and be able to go through e-gates and be able to travel more easily, and they want more money in the economy.”Asked specifically about Farage’s “surrender” claim, Ms Thornberry said: “Big word for him, isn’t it?”She added: “There’s 13 of these youth mobility schemes already with the UK and the sky hasn’t fallen in, and I think youngsters in Britain would like to be able to travel in Europe and so it has to be reciprocal.”Dame Emily Thornberry said the UK should act with ‘a little less caution and a lot more confidence’ in its dealings with the EU (Jordan Pettitt/PA) More

British tourists arriving in Europe could be able to use EU passport gates once again under Sir Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset deal. Sir Keir’s EU minister said the government was pushing for measures to speed up the process in interviews on Sunday morning, after reports the UK was on the verge of striking a deal. Nick Thomas-Symonds made the comments ahead of a summit between the UK and the EU on Monday. Mr Thomas-Symonds, who has been leading negotiations with Brussels on the deal, said it would give people “more time to spend on holiday or work trips… doing what you want, not being stuck in queues”.British tourists arriving in Europe will be able to use EU passport gates More

Romanians are casting ballots Sunday in a tense presidential runoff between a hard-right nationalist and a pro-Western centrist in a high-stakes election rerun that could determine the geopolitical direction of the European Union and NATO member country.Sunday’s race pits front-runner George Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, against incumbent Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan. It comes months after the cancelation of the previous election plunged Romania into its worst political crisis in decades.Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) local time and will close at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT). Romanians abroad have been able to vote since Friday at polling stations set up in other countries, and more than 730,000 have already cast ballots.Romania’s political landscape was upended last year when a top court voided the previous election after far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow denied.Years of endemic corruption and growing anger toward Romania’s political establishment have fueled a surge in support for anti-establishment and hard-right figures, reflecting a broader pattern across Europe. Both Simion and Dan have made their political careers railing against Romania’s old political class.Most recent local surveys indicate the runoff will be tight, after earlier ones showed Simion holding a lead over Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician who rose to prominence as a civic activist fighting against illegal real estate projects.Turnout is typically higher in the final round of Romanian presidential elections, and is expected to play a decisive role in the outcome on Sunday. In the first round on May 4, final turnout stood at 9.5 million, or 53% of eligible voters, according to official electoral data.Dan founded the reformist Save Romania Union party in 2016 but later left, and is running independently on a pro-EU ticket reaffirming Western ties, support for Ukraine and fiscal reform.The presidential role carries a five-year term and significant decision-making powers in national security and foreign policy. The winner of Sunday’s race will be charged with nominating a new prime minister after Marcel Ciolacu stepped down following the failure of his coalition’s candidate to advance to the runoff.After coming fourth in last year’s canceled race, Simion backed Georgescu who was banned in March from standing in the redo. Simion then surged to front-runner in the May 4 first round after becoming the standard-bearer for the hard right.Simion, also a former activist who campaigned for reunification with neighboring Moldova, says he would focus on reforms: slashing red tape, reducing bureaucracy and taxes. But he insists that his main goal is to restore democracy. “My platform is to return to democracy, to the will of the people,” he said.The AUR party he leads says it stands for “family, nation, faith, and freedom” and rose to prominence in a 2020 parliamentary election. It has since grown to become the second-largest party in the Romanian legislature.To his critics, Simion is a pro-Russian extremist who threatens Romania’s longstanding alliances in the EU and NATO. But in an Associated Press interview, he rejected the accusations, saying Russia is his country’s biggest threat and that he wants Romania to be treated as “equal partners” in Brussels.“I don’t think he is a pro-Russian candidate, I also don’t think that he’s an anti-Russian candidate,” said Claudiu Tufis, an associate professor of political science at the University of Bucharest. “I think what is driving him is … his focus on what I call identity politics.”In the first-round vote, Simion won a massive 61% of Romania’s large diaspora vote, with his calls to patriotism resonating with Romanians who moved abroad in search of better opportunities.Hours after voting opened Friday, Simion accused the Moldovan government of election fraud, claims that were quickly rejected by Moldovan and Romanian authorities. “These statements are intended to sow distrust and hostility, with the aim of influencing the election process,” Romania’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. More

Keir Starmer meets with Ursula Von der Leyen in Albania in 11th hour Brexit reset talksSir Keir Starmer’s government has been urged to be “bold in its offer to the EU” in order to “maximise benefits” from his reset plans, as MPs criticised his “secretive” approach.As the prime minister prepares to host the first UK-EU summit on Monday, where he hopes to make significant progress on a deal, a cross-party group of MPs warned that his efforts were being hampered by a “perceived absence of a strategic vision”.In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said the lack of a “compelling political narrative” had left those outside Westminster unclear about British policy and unconvinced of the “strategic importance” of making the reset a success.Urging the government to be bolder, committee chair Dame Emily Thornberry said: “We should be clear about what it is that we want and act with a little less caution and a lot more confidence. If we do this, there is every reason to believe the EU will respond positively.”Starmer vows closer EU ties will be good for jobs and living standardsSir Keir Starmer has said that closer ties with the EU will be good for the UK’s jobs, bills and borders ahead of a London summit on Monday at which he could announce a deal with the bloc.The prime minister said: “In this time of great uncertainty and volatility, the UK will not respond by turning inwards but by proudly taking our place on the world stage – strengthening our alliances and closing deals in the interests of British people.“First India, then the United States – in the last two weeks alone that’s jobs saved, faster growth and wages rising. More money in the pockets of British working people, achieved through striking deals not striking poses.“Tomorrow, we take another step forwards, with yet more benefits for the United Kingdom as the result of a strengthened partnership with the European Union. It will be good for our jobs, good for our bills and good for our borders.“That’s what the British people voted for last year, and it’s what my government will deliver.”The Prime Minister announced changes to the immigration system on Monday (Ian Vogler/PA) More

A £25bn annual boost to British exports is at stake for Sir Keir Starmer as he tries to secure a Brexit reset deal at a crucial summit on Monday, analysis shared with The Independent reveals.Removing trade barriers on goods, including food and drink and electrical items, could result in a 2.2 per cent uplift in gross domestic product in the long run, boosting the economic growth the prime minister so desperately wants to deliver, financial analysts Frontier Economics found.And a separate assessment by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) warns that a failure to land a deal for easier trading could lead to a 2.7 per cent drop in exports by 2027, costing the UK economy almost £30bn.The impact on the British economy from such a deal is expected to dwarf that of the agreements recently signed with India and the US.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen ahead of their bilateral meeting More

Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls from hundreds of MPs and peers to ban Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) amid a deteriorating human rights picture in the UK and after three Iranian men were charged with spying in London. Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock is among those urging the prime minister to outlaw the IRGC, warning “the human rights crisis in Iran continues to worsen”. It came as three Iranian men living in London were charged under the National Security Act, accused of engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service.Keir Starmer is facing calls to ban the IRGC More

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of shutting European news outlets out of his much-hyped EU-UK summit on Monday. With the prime minister set to unveil his post-Brexit reset plans alongside Brussels leaders, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) has said “almost every European news outlet” with a foreign correspondent in London has been denied access to the summit. In a letter sent to Downing Street the FPA, which represents foreign journalists based in the UK, said: “Sir Keir Starmer, you state that you want a reset with the EU. You organise a summit between the UK and the EU to restart the relationship.Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of shutting foreign press out of Monday’s summit More

The Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee has urged Keir Starmer to be “courageous” in resetting his relationship with Europe to tackle the “suffering” caused by Brexit. Dame Emily Thornberry, who was a member of the prime minister’s shadow cabinet in opposition, said economic growth had been “severely compromised” by trade barriers created by the UK leaving the EU. Brexit is on course to cost 4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product per year, according to official statistics from the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility. The Labour leader is scrambling to avert a crisis facing his much-vaunted Brexit reset deal with the EU, due to be unveiled at a summit in London on Monday. Sir Keir held 11th-hour talks with EU boss Ursula von der Leyen and French leader Emmanuel Macron on Friday on the fringes of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Albania, amid fears an agreement to secure closer ties could be derailed with just days to go.Officials are in deadlock over issues including a demand from EU states for EU students to pay lower British tuition fee rates for universities, which could cost the UK an estimated £1bn, while President Macron is also leading a charge for demands that EU fishermen can fish in British waters as part of a deal to allow trade barriers to be removed.Dame Emily Thornberry says the government needs to be ‘going further’ More