{"id":167946,"date":"2025-06-08T15:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T15:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/167946\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T15:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T15:50:12","slug":"pet-passports-will-return-after-brexit-reset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/167946\/","title":{"rendered":"Pet passports will return after Brexit reset"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tLabour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds vows to deliver Brexit reset benefits to voters before the next general election\u00a0\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

That Nick Thomas-Symonds<\/a> gave his EU counterpart a gift of whisky and got wine in return will seem to some all-too typical of how things turn out when the UK negotiates with Brussels.<\/p>\n

But the cabinet minister tasked with the Brexit reset<\/a> said he has learned to appreciate Slovakian red while Maros Sefcovic, the EU\u2019s lead negotiator, \u201cabsolutely loved\u201d his Welsh whisky.<\/p>\n

For now it certainly seems like a love-in. \u201cThere was a lovely moment when [Sefcovic] was speaking in the Downing Street garden on the day of the [UK-EU] summit when he said he had this issue where his wife had picked up his phone and said, \u2018Who is this Nikki you keep speaking to?\u2019. And he\u2019d had to reassure her that this was Nick and Nick was actually the UK\u2019s lead negotiator.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal announced on 19 May<\/a> gave UK defence firms the right to bid for part of a new EU fund in return for extending access to UK fishing waters<\/a>. It committed the two sides for further talks on animal health and food safety rules \u2013 opening the way to the return of the EU pet passport \u2013 and to exploring closer ties on energy and carbon trading.<\/p>\n

However, the chance for young people from the EU and UK to live and work in each other\u2019s countries<\/a> if anything receded as Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, dug her heels in over visa numbers and the EU refused to accept a more limited scheme.<\/p>\n

\"RachelThe Government met with EU counterparts in May as part of Starmer\u2019s drive to reset post-Brexit relations and secure new deals with Europe (Photo: Getty)<\/p>\n

It was said of Brexit that it wasn\u2019t a moment but a process. The same could be true of the reset. <\/p>\n

The warm words in the May sunshine were one thing \u2013 but the line-by-line negotiations haven\u2019t even begun, indeed the EU member states won\u2019t decide their common position \u2013 or mandate \u2013 until this autumn.<\/p>\n

So Thomas-Symonds, one of Starmer\u2019s closest allies, has the task of convincing voters that tangible benefits are coming \u2013 while thrashing out the details of a series of mini-reset deals with Brussels over the coming months and years.<\/p>\n

\u2018A political fight we relish\u2019<\/p>\n

Speaking to The i Paper from his office in Downing Street, he says he knows voters will need to feel the difference by the time they next go to the polls. \u201cWe will certainly be looking to deliver our deal and have the benefits of it before the next general election.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the deal gives Labour a great dividing line and that the Tories are in a mess about what to do about Brexit. \u201cIf the opposition parties seriously want to go into an election saying they want to undo a deal that is lowering bills, that is creating jobs, that\u2019s giving us more tools to protect our borders, that is a political fight we relish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The search for immediate benefits has led the Government to claim that British holiday makers will be able to use the same passport e-gates as EU passengers when arriving in some EU destinations. Faro, in Portugal, became the latest to announce the welcome measure last week.<\/a> But can the minister say \u2013 hand on heart \u2013 that Faro and other airports wouldn\u2019t have allowed that access without the deal?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was in the deal was absolute clarity that there is no barrier to member states not allowing Brits to use e-gates. Now was that lack of clarity a problem? Of course, that lack of clarity was a problem. You\u2019ve only got to ask anybody who has travelled to various member states.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Be firm on our national interest\u2019<\/p>\n

In terms of when we can expect to see the return of pet passports, or cheaper food or energy bills \u2013 all benefits promised \u2013 Thomas-Symonds will only say that he is in an \u201cimplementation phase\u201d while pointing to his record so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister tasked me with delivering this deal, and I managed to do it \u2013 supported by a great team \u2013 within 10 months. So I hope you take that as an indication of the speed at which I\u2019ve been working, the intensity of which I\u2019ve been working to get this done. And frankly, if you look at the comprehensive list of things that\u2019s in that deal, I think some people would have been surprised that that could have been done within 10 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not clear what\u2019s to stop the EU from demanding further concessions from the UK \u2013 for instance demanding that it signs up to its own AI regulations, say critics. Thomas-Symonds is adamant that that isn\u2019t on the table. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be very firm on our national interest,\u201d he insists. \u201cOn something like AI, where we obviously want to be a world leader in AI, and we\u2019ve been very firm about what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas-Symonds was an academic historian before becoming MP for his home seat of Torfaen in Wales. He has written biographies of Clement Atlee and Harold Wilson. Which does he think Keir Starmer most resembles? His answer is more politician than academic: Starmer has Atlee\u2019s ruthless determination for public service and Wilson\u2019s pragmatism, he says.<\/p>\n

That pragmatism, lest it be forgotten, extended to Wilson remaining neutral on the very question of whether the UK should join the EU 50 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds vows to deliver Brexit reset benefits to voters before the next general election\u00a0 That…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,54419,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,8414,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-167946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-brexit-deal","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-labour","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114648542351013983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167946","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=167946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}