{"id":689663,"date":"2026-01-11T21:10:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T21:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689663\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T21:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T21:10:21","slug":"eus-reform-deterrent-could-call-for-legal-challenge-partys-foreign-adviser-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689663\/","title":{"rendered":"EU&#8217;s &#8216;Reform deterrent&#8217; could call for legal challenge, party&#8217;s foreign adviser says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The European Union&#8217;s clause to defend against a potential future Government led by Nigel Farage could call for a legal challenge, Reform&#8217;s foreign policy chief has told GB News. <\/p>\n<p>In negotiations with Sir Keir Starmer, the bloc has made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gbnews.com\/politics\/eu-farage-clause-keir-starmer-reset-talks-britain-paying-significant-financial-compensation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the new demand<\/a> that any future British Government must cough up a sizeable sum if they wish to duck out of a post-Brexit &#8220;reset&#8221; deal.<\/p>\n<p>The subsequently-dubbed &#8220;Farage clause&#8221; was hidden away in part of a potential EU-EK &#8220;veterinary agreement&#8221;, seen by the FT, which seeks to slash red tape for British food and drink exporters. <\/p>\n<p>EU officials have admitted the addition was crafted to protect Brussels from the consequences of a Government led by the Brexit supremo.<\/p>\n<p>Explaining the bloc was looking to settle a relationship to last beyond the next parliamentary term, a top European diplomat told the FT it was a &#8220;safety provision to provide stability and a deterrent for Farage and Co&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Chief adviser on global affairs to Reform UK, Alan Mendoza, told GB News: &#8220;It may well be legal but it&#8217;s not cricket, as they say. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I mean, the British people have all been asked about this. The British people, on the contrary, said we should have less to do the EU, not more. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This Government did not go into the last election saying it was going to do deals like this.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"e3dc7\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"e17691967c07d610bbf9c89f063da95b\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201200%20800'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/nigel-farage-alan-mendoza.png\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" alt=\"Nigel Farage; Alan Mendoza\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mr Mendoza said the clause could call for a legal challenge<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>PA\/GB<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And if it does a deal like this, which essentially ties the hands of future governments and it will have a lot to answer for.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I suspect there probably will be a legal challenge in the sense to say this is not a sensible policy approach for any Government to be taking, because of course, this is not something that people have approved.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Asked what Mr Farage thought of the clause, Mr Mendoza, who recently defected from the Conservative Party, told the People&#8217;s Channel the ex-MEP will &#8220;speak for himself&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;But quite clearly, Reform UK&#8217;s position has been to obviously want to renegotiate Britain&#8217;s status with all these European deals in the other direction, to have more freedom and to have more flexibility rather than being locked into things.<\/p>\n<p>                IS BRITAIN ON THE BRINK OF A BREXIT BETRAYAL? READ MORE:<\/p>\n<p>        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"ad860\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"21a2e1a8a4f06016d8ed86b40221cc5f\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201460%20840'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dawn-neesom-and-alan-mendoza.png\" width=\"1460\" height=\"840\" alt=\"Dawn Neesom and Alan Mendoza\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Alan Mendoza ripped into the slew of &#8216;undemocratic&#8217; moves from the Labour Government<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>GB NEWS<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It sounds suspiciously like EU by the back door.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Referencing a number of Labour measures, from scrapping jury service to the introduction of digital ID to delaying local elections, Mr Mendoza blasted the anti-democratic principles demonstrated by the Government.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;There&#8217;s a definite trend here, an authoritarian trend from this Government. And I suspect it&#8217;s because the Government knows it&#8217;s so unpopular. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And as a result, it&#8217;s trying to push through as much significant change as it can do in a bid to try and fundamentally transform this country before it gets voted out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If Sir Keir agrees to the &#8220;Farage clause&#8221;, a Reform Government would &#8220;get us out of a deal like this with whatever means necessary and at minimal cost to the British public to restore the sovereignty that this Government appears to be undermining&#8221;, the ex-Tory declared.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier today, Mr Farage took aim at the Prime Minister over the controversial clause, warning Sir Keir to steer clear of such an agreement.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;No Parliament may bind its successor and we will not honour any clause. If Starmer signs this, it\u2019s a democratic outrage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A key cornerstone of the British constitution is the principle of parliamentary sovereignty, refusing to allow any parliament to bind its successors. <\/p>\n<p>It means any Parliament should have total power to make, amend or repeal any legislation &#8211; nor are they allowed to give the green light to legislation to bind future Parliaments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union&#8217;s clause to defend against a potential future Government led by Nigel Farage could call for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[802,2000,299,5187,1699,12,285,386,3106,6225,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-689663","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-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-reform-uk","16":"tag-uk-politics","17":"tag-video-news","18":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115878522146109223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689663","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=689663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}