{"id":99077,"date":"2025-05-13T21:28:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T21:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/99077\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T21:28:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T21:28:21","slug":"migrant-clampdown-paves-way-to-softer-brexit-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/99077\/","title":{"rendered":"Migrant clampdown paves way to softer Brexit deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Controversial measures to cut legal immigration<\/a> will allow the UK to make a deal with the EU on youth mobility<\/a>, The i Paper understands.<\/p>\n

Government sources said that any scheme would be compatible with Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s<\/a> pledge to \u201csignificantly\u201d reduce migration, while a European source said the Prime Minister\u2019s vow could make it easier to sell youth mobility to the British public.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Starmer will host a UK-EU summit in London as part of his commitment to \u201creset\u201d post-Brexit relations with the bloc.<\/p>\n

A defence and security pact<\/a> is expected to be announced at the summit, but there will also be discussion of a youth mobility scheme, which would make it easier for under-30s from the EU to study and work in the UK for a limited period, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

Such a scheme has been a key demand for Brussels, but there have been fears on the UK side that it would boost migration numbers and prove politically costly.<\/p>\n

However, by adopting the policies in the immigration white paper<\/a> \u2013 which Starmer has said will \u201csignificantly\u201d reduce overall migration \u2013 Labour believe they can neutralise such concerns if the scheme is time-limited and capped.<\/p>\n

This would allow the UK to accept a number of young people without it adding to net migration, due to the hoped for large reductions elsewhere.<\/p>\n

No return to freedom of movement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Government sources pointed out that Britain would not sign up to a deal with the EU on youth mobility if it contradicted the Prime Minister\u2019s goal to cut migration announced just days earlier.<\/p>\n

The sources said that not returning to freedom of movement remained a red line for the Government and pointed out that Britain already has 13 controlled youth mobility schemes with countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay.<\/p>\n

They added that talks with the EU were ongoing and said nothing would be agreed until everything is agreed.<\/p>\n

A European diplomatic source meanwhile said that the white paper would not affect the negotiations on youth mobility but suggested it would \u201cbe helpful for the domestic argument of the Government\u201d.<\/p>\n

While ministers had insisted for months that there were \u201cno plans\u201d for a youth mobility scheme, there have been several high level interventions in recent weeks to open the door to a deal.<\/p>\n

Last week, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister for EU relations, told the Financial Times that \u201ca smart, controlled youth mobility scheme would of course have benefits for our young people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will consider sensible EU proposals in this space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thomas-Symonds\u2019 words on youth mobility were then backed by the Prime Minister, who told The Guardian: \u201cWe\u2019re pragmatists, and that\u2019s the approach that we bring to these negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the EU talks on Tuesday, the Prime Minister\u2019s official spokesman said: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to get into a running commentary on the negotiations. Those discussions are ongoing and nothing is agreed yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brexit reset is a pivotal part of the government\u2019s bid to grow the economy.<\/p>\n

It came amid continuing fallout from Starmer\u2019s speech on immigration, in which he said the UK was at risk of becoming an \u201cisland of strangers\u201d unless the rules on migration are tightened up. <\/p>\n

\u2018Island of strangers\u2019 row continues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some Labour MPs have claimed the comment was reminiscent of Enoch Powell\u2019s infamous Rivers of Blood speech, in which Powell spoke of Britons being \u201cmade strangers in their own country\u201d by immigration.<\/p>\n

A source on the Labour left said they were concerned about the effects of Starmer\u2019s rhetoric \u201con the ground\u201d, warning that immigrants who are \u201calready vulnerable\u201d may be increasingly targeted.<\/p>\n

However, a \u201cRed Wall\u201d Labour MP said the language used by Starmer was \u201cvery moderate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go and speak to people in communities, they are worried that we don\u2019t seem to have any control over who comes into the country,\u201d they said. \u201cImmigration is a public service and it\u2019s broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

A poll by YouGov found that 53 per cent agreed with the sentiment of Starmer\u2019s comment, with 26 disagreeing.<\/p>\n

On the Powell comparison, the PM\u2019s Spokesman\u2019s said: \u201cThe Prime Minister rejects those comparisons and absolutely stands behind the argument he was making that migrants make a massive contribution to our country, but migration needs to be controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Controversial measures to cut legal immigration will allow the UK to make a deal with the EU on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,40,807,3027,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-99077","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-immigration","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-politics-news","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114502651266572167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99077","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=99077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}