{"id":644223,"date":"2025-12-20T12:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T12:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644223\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T12:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T12:38:11","slug":"brexit-betrayal-as-starmer-set-to-accept-another-bill-from-brussels-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644223\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit betrayal as Starmer set to accept another bill from Brussels | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concerns are growing that the UK could be asked to hand over more money to Brussels<\/a> amid fresh negotiations between Sir Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s Government and the European Union<\/a>. Discussions have begun on a potential electricity trading agreement with the EU, which ministers believe could help reduce household energy bills by allowing the UK to re-link with the bloc\u2019s internal electricity market.<\/p>\n

However, critics warn that access to the system could come at a cost. EU officials are widely expected to push for UK contributions to the bloc\u2019s cohesion fund, a scheme used to support less wealthy regions across Europe, raising fears of another post-Brexit<\/a> financial commitment.<\/p>\n

The talks come just days after the Prime Minister agreed for Britain to rejoin the Erasmus student exchange programme, a move estimated to cost UK taxpayers up to \u00a36 billion over seven years.<\/p>\n

That figure is around three times higher than a contribution previously rejected by Boris Johnson<\/a> during Brexit negotiations.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir has also pledged to continue moving Britain towards a closer relationship with the EU, following an earlier agreement that extended access for French fishing vessels to British waters for a further 12 years, a deal criticised by opponents as a major concession.<\/p>\n

Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel accused the Prime Minister of repeatedly giving ground to Brussels.
\u201cHaving agreed to hand the EU billions through the Erasmus deal for seemingly very little in return, Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> is now considering yet another payment to Brussels,\u201d she told the Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters will question whether he is truly standing up for Britain\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Government insists no blank cheque is on the table. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister overseeing the so-called Brexit reset, said the UK would not make general payments into the EU budget as part of any electricity deal. He argued that closer energy co-operation could lower costs for British families.<\/p>\n

Despite those assurances, it is understood Labour is open to the idea of limited or \u201cfair\u201d financial contributions if they help secure access to the market, potentially allowing UK energy firms to trade electricity more freely with EU countries.<\/p>\n

Former chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost criticised the direction of talks, warning Britain could end up bound by EU rules once again.
\u201cThe only thing we would gain from this is being subject to EU laws that we have no say over, don\u2019t suit us and cannot change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Government sources have sought to play down the row, insisting the UK has made clear it will not contribute to the EU\u2019s cohesion fund and that any agreement must respect British sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the renewed negotiations have reignited the Brexit debate, with critics accusing Sir Keir of quietly reversing key elements of the UK\u2019s departure from the EU, and potentially sending British money back to Brussels in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concerns are growing that the UK could be asked to hand over more money to Brussels amid fresh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,5322,748,11330,2000,20728,299,5187,1699,4884,807,16,197820,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-644223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-brexit-news","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-brussels","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-eu-negotiations","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-union","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-keir-starmer","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-uk-financial-contributions","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115751938029777469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644223","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=644223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}