{"id":643264,"date":"2025-12-20T00:59:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643264\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T00:59:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:59:19","slug":"starmer-gears-up-for-brexit-backtrack-on-eu-energy-trade-deal-as-britain-could-face-another-bill-to-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643264\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer gears up for Brexit backtrack on EU energy trade deal as Britain could face another bill to Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-848\/martin-beckford.html\" class=\"author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MARTIN BECKFORD, POLICY EDITOR<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  18:35 EST, 19 December 2025   |  Updated:  18:38 EST, 19 December 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Fears have been raised that Britain could end up paying yet more to Brussels in another <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/brexit\/index.html\" id=\"mol-5b63e7b0-dd33-11f0-8f78-ddae0de4a2ef\" rel=\"noopener\">Brexit<\/a> backtrack by Sir <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/keir-starmer\/index.html\" id=\"mol-5b2f9140-dd33-11f0-8f78-ddae0de4a2ef\" rel=\"noopener\">Keir Starmer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Talks have begun with the EU on an electricity trading deal which ministers believe could help cut energy bills for homes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">But in return for being allowed to rejoin its internal electricity market the EU is expected to demand Britain pays into its \u2018cohesion fund\u2019, which gives cash to poor regions of the continent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">This comes just days after the Prime Minister signed up to the EU\u2019s Erasmus student exchange programme, which could cost UK taxpayers up to \u00a36billion over the next seven years \u2013 three times as much as a demand rejected by <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/boris_johnson\/index.html\" id=\"mol-5b0043e0-dd33-11f0-8f78-ddae0de4a2ef\" rel=\"noopener\">Boris Johnson<\/a> during Brexit negotiations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Sir Keir also recently vowed to \u2018keep moving towards a closer relationship with the EU\u2019, having earlier this year agreed to a \u2018surrender\u2019 deal that allowed French fishermen to trawl British waters for another 12 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Shadow <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/dominic-raab\/index.html\" id=\"mol-5b1ad0c0-dd33-11f0-8f78-ddae0de4a2ef\" rel=\"noopener\">Foreign Secretary<\/a> Dame <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/priti-patel\/index.html\" id=\"mol-5b49a8f0-dd33-11f0-8f78-ddae0de4a2ef\" rel=\"noopener\">Priti Patel<\/a> said: \u2018Having agreed to give the EU billions as part of the Erasmus deal for seemingly nothing in return, Sir Keir Starmer is now contemplating another bung to Brussels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018Voters will rightly doubt whether he is really batting for Britain.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Brexit reset minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said the Government would \u2018not make general contributions to the EU budget\u2019 to achieve the electricity deal, which he said would drive down energy costs for UK families.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Fears have been raised that Britain could end up paying yet more to Brussels in another Brexit backtrack by Sir Keir Starmer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-836edf25b07376bb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/104895301-15401015-image-a-1_1766187019607.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Fears have been raised that Britain could end up paying yet more to Brussels in another Brexit backtrack by Sir Keir Starmer\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Fears have been raised that Britain could end up paying yet more to Brussels in another Brexit backtrack by Sir Keir Starmer<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-b6e0dd482709ec6f\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/104895355-15401015-image-a-2_1766187026792.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"'Sir Keir Starmer is now contemplating another bung to Brussels,' said Priti Patel\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">&#8216;Sir Keir Starmer is now contemplating another bung to Brussels,&#8217; said Priti Patel<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">But it is understood Labour is willing to consider fair contributions to gain access to the market, which would allow British companies to export energy to the bloc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost said: \u2018The only thing we are getting back from this negotiation is the right to be subject to EU laws that we have no say in, don\u2019t suit us and can\u2019t change.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Sources insisted that the UK has made clear it will not pay into the EU\u2019s cohesion fund.<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Starmer gears up for Brexit backtrack on EU energy trade deal as Britain could face another bill to Brussels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By MARTIN BECKFORD, POLICY EDITOR Published: 18:35 EST, 19 December 2025 | Updated: 18:38 EST, 19 December 2025&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,11330,92,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-643264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-brussels","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-keir-starmer","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115749190383037153","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643264","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=643264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}