Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s government prepares legislation to align UK closer to the EU, sparking internal and external political battles.<\/p>\n
LONDON<\/strong>: Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour government is preparing for new political battles as it readies legislation to move the UK closer to the European Union.<\/p>\n The bill aims to provide a legal framework for Starmer\u2019s promised \u201creset\u201d of relations with the 27-member bloc.<\/p>\n Despite Labour\u2019s large parliamentary majority, the move is expected to face fierce opposition from right-wing parties.<\/p>\n \u201cBring it on,\u201d a UK government official told AFP, referring to likely \u201cBrexit betrayal\u201d claims from the Conservatives and Reform UK.<\/p>\n The move also risks opening divisions within Labour over whether to breach a manifesto promise not to rejoin the EU customs union.<\/p>\n Starmer struck an economic agreement with EU leaders last year to boost trade by easing red tape on food and plant exports.<\/p>\n They also agreed to work on a new electricity deal to integrate the UK into the EU\u2019s internal energy market.<\/p>\n The bill will provide powers to adopt EU rules in certain areas and set out parliament\u2019s role in that process.<\/p>\n The government hopes to introduce the legislation in the spring or summer.<\/p>\n This could coincide with the 10th anniversary of the June 2016 Brexit referendum.<\/p>\n Opinion polls now regularly show most Britons regret the vote to leave and view Brexit as a failure.<\/p>\n \u201cLabour members are almost wholly united in wanting to see some of the damage done by the Tory-Farage Brexit exposed and fixed,\u201d said one supportive Labour MP.<\/p>\n The lawmaker added that closer alignment helps Labour\u2019s economic message and will boost British business.<\/p>\n However, not all Labour MPs are in agreement.<\/p>\n Thirteen of them recently voted for a Liberal Democrat bill calling for negotiations to rejoin a customs union with the EU.<\/p>\n Health Secretary Wes Streeting has indicated his support for such an agreement.<\/p>\n Starmer has come out against a customs union, favouring closer alignment with the EU\u2019s single market instead.<\/p>\n \u201cI want us to do more,\u201d one Labour MP who feels Starmer is not being bold enough told AFP.<\/p>\n Other Labour lawmakers would rather he left the issue alone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe said we wouldn\u2019t re-open the Brexit debate and now we are doing exactly that,\u201d MP Jonathan Hinder told AFP.<\/p>\n A UK government spokesperson said the reset was \u201cimproving our diplomatic, economic and security cooperation\u201d.<\/p>\n They stated it will be worth \u00a39.0 billion to the UK economy by 2040.<\/p>\n Ian Bond of the Centre for European Reform said whether the bill is \u201ca game changer will depend on exactly how much latitude the British government gives itself\u201d.<\/p>\n He added that ministers appear \u201cterrified that if they do anything too bold, Reform will criticise them for it\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s government prepares legislation to align UK closer to the EU, sparking internal and external…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,8414,31172,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-704442","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-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-labour","16":"tag-starmer","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115916715145854649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704442","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=704442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}