{"id":27743,"date":"2026-02-28T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/27743\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T18:40:10","slug":"starmer-issued-major-warning-over-eu-net-zero-surrender-blank-cheque-to-brussels-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/27743\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer issued major warning over EU net-zero surrender – \u2018blank cheque to Brussels\u2019 | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour<\/a> MPs have urged Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> to stall energy negotiations with the European Union<\/a>. The Government is currently in talks about rejoining the EU\u2019s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) carbon market as the Prime Minister continues to seek closer ties with the bloc as part of his \u201cBrexit<\/a> reset\u201d.<\/p>\n

MPs have warned Sir Keir not to hand Brussels a \u201cblack cheque\u201d over net-zero rules, according to reports. In a letter to Downing, they said this threatens to \u201cundermine\u201d British business. They also warned UK firms could be placed at a \u201csignificant disadvantage\u201d if forced to cover further costs on goods sold overseas \u2014 something competitors from abroad are not required to do.<\/p>\n

Labour MP Henry Tufnell, chair of the Commission for Carbon Competitiveness, was one of the letter\u2019s signatories.<\/p>\n

While welcoming closer relations with the EU, he said, according to The Telegraph<\/a>, that the UK \u201ccannot lock ourselves into paths that do not match our industrial realities or decarbonisation timetables, and over which we have no say\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the Government must \u201cprioritise and protect\u201d British firms, while striking a \u201clinkage agreement\u201d with Brussels.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting the substance right is essential for both sides, and mustn\u2019t be sacrificed for the sake of finalising a \u2018reset\u2019 deal before the next UK-EU summit in May,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The letter was signed by leading members of the Commission for Carbon Competitiveness.<\/p>\n

It called on the PM to delay negotiations until the impact on British businesses is clear, The Telegraph reported.<\/p>\n

The UK left the ETS scheme in late 2020 following Brexit<\/a> and has since set up its own similar scheme designed to encourage firms to pollute less.<\/p>\n

Rejoining would reportedly see the UK carbon price rise, making it even more costly for firms to pollute.<\/p>\n

It is hoped this would push companies to look to slash emissions more rapidly and in turn, help hit net-zero targets.<\/p>\n

However, there are warnings this could cause price hikes for consumers.<\/p>\n

In response, a Government spokesperson told The Telegraph: \u201cWe are delivering on our commitment to secure a carbon linking agreement with the EU as soon as possible, which will exempt British businesses from EU charges on \u00a37 billion worth of exports. We won\u2019t comment on ongoing negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour MPs have urged Sir Keir Starmer to stall energy negotiations with the European Union. The Government is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,13923,210,814,71,73,1317,7563],"class_list":["post-27743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-belgium","tag-brexit-news","tag-brussels","tag-energy","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour-party"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}