{"id":111432,"date":"2025-05-18T10:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T10:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/111432\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T10:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T10:17:11","slug":"labour-strikes-deal-with-eu-to-enhance-holiday-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/111432\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour Strikes Deal With EU To Enhance Holiday Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

A deal with the EU<\/a> which could see the end of British holidaymakers having to queue for hours in European airports is on the verge of being struck by ministers.<\/p>\n

UK tourists will be allowed to use e-gates when they arrive at their destination, potentially saving them hours of having to wait in line.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough is one of the major planks of a deal set to be unveiled by Keir Starmer<\/a> at a summit in London on Monday.<\/p>\n

Millions of Brits have had to endure the mind-numbing ritual of queuing at passport control as a result of the UK\u2019s decision to leave the EU in 2016.<\/p>\n

That is because they are currently not allowed to use the e-gates reserved for those from the EU or the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n

British travellers to Europe, by contrast, have to wait in a separate queue to have their passports stamped.<\/p>\n

On the BBC this morning, Laura Kuenssberg<\/a> asked Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds<\/a>, who has been leading the negotiations with the EU for the government, if he was \u201cconfident that British travellers will be able to use e-gates with their passports instead of being stuck in queues for hours at European airports\u201d.<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cI am certainly pushing for people to be able to go through far more quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can all agree that not being stuck in queues and having more time to spend, whether it\u2019s on holiday or work trips … I\u2019m sure we can all agree that that would be a very sensible objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

The apparent breakthrough is embarrassing for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch<\/a>, who had accused the government of failing to get an agreement on the use of e-gates.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cLabour should have used this review of our EU trade deal to secure new wins for Britain, such as an EU-wide agreement on Brits using e-gates on the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, it sounds like we\u2019re giving away our fishing quotas, becoming a rule-taker from Brussels once again and getting free movement by the back door. This isn\u2019t a reset, it\u2019s a surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK-UK agreement is also set to include a youth mobility scheme to make it easier for 18 to 30-year-olds to live and work abroad.<\/p>\n

On Sky News, Thomas-Symonds was challenged over previous comments by home secretary Yvette Cooper<\/a>, which suggested such a deal ran counter to the government\u2019s efforts to bring down immigration.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to reduce the level of net migration, and anything that is agreed on youth mobility … would be consistent with the objective to bring the level of net migration down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A deal with the EU which could see the end of British holidaymakers having to queue for hours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[802,2000,299,5187,1699,528,810],"class_list":{"0":"post-111432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-labour-party","14":"tag-nick-thomas-symonds"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114528324532724549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}