UK companies spent up to \u00a365m last year on licences to export food and agricultural products to the EU \u2013 costs that the government is promising to eliminate as part of a new deal to be agreed by 2027.<\/p>\n
Government figures released on Tuesday showed it issued 328,727 such licences last year, at a cost of between \u00a3113 and \u00a3200 each. That would put the total cost to business at somewhere between \u00a337m and \u00a365m.<\/p>\n
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of European negotiations, will on Wednesday pledge to eliminate such costs as he promises a new agreement with the EU in the next 18 months.<\/p>\n
In an event at the Spectator offices in London to be hosted by the leading Brexiter Michael Gove, Thomas-Symonds will make a vocally political argument for becoming closer to the EU.<\/p>\n
Ministers have decided in recent months their attempts to realign with Brussels enjoy more support than the approach of the Conservatives or Reform UK, which have promised to rip up Labour\u2019s renegotiated deal.<\/p>\n
Thomas-Symonds will take specific aim at Farage, arguing: \u201cNigel Farage\u2019s manifesto at the next election will say in writing he wants to take Britain backwards, cutting at least \u00a39bn from the economy, bringing with it a risk to jobs and a risk of food prices going up.\u201d<\/p>\n
A day after the Reform leader gave a speech<\/a> warning that Britain was under threat from an \u201cinvasion\u201d of asylum seekers, Thomas-Symonds will add: \u201cNigel Farage wants Britain to fail. His model of politics feeds on it, offering the easy answers, dividing communities and stoking anger.\u201d<\/p>\n