Starmer leaves door open to EU-wide youth-movement scheme

During meeting with Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister refuses to rule out deal for young Europeans as part of a ‘reset’ with the bloc

Sir Keir Starmer has left the door open to a freedom of movement-style deal for young Europeans as he vowed to turn a corner on Brexit.
The Prime Minister refused to rule out an EU-wide youth mobility scheme as part of a “reset” in relations with the trade bloc.
Speaking in Berlin, where he opened negotiations on a new bilateral treaty with Germany, Sir Keir insisted he had no plans to pursue such an agreement, which would allow young Europeans to travel across the continent with fewer barriers. But he said the UK was keen to build a “closer relationship” with the EU on “a number of fronts”, including “exchanges”.
He later refused to categorically rule out any sort of youth mobility scheme with the EU, something Germany said was on its “wish list” for its own pact with the UK.
Taking questions at a press conference alongside Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, the Prime Minister also failed to deny that US objections were preventing Ukraine from using Storm Shadow missiles to hit targets inside Russia.
When asked if this was the case, he said he was not willing to “get into tactical questions about the use of weapons”.
Germany has been vocal about its desire to strike a deal on youth mobility, despite UK reservations about anything that would open the door to free movement of labour.
Ahead of Wednesday’s talks on the new treaty, Nils Schmid, the foreign affairs spokesman for Mr Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, said there was a “constant push” by Berlin to facilitate cooperation between the UK and the EU “in as many fields as possible, ranging from trade to student-mobility rights to defence”.
He said a youth mobility scheme was “a major feature of our wish list” but “this is not about immigration in a general sense”.
“This is about facilitating access of youth to Great Britain for stays of limited duration, for purposes like educational programmes, youth exchange or student exchange,” Mr Schmid said.
Labour has insisted it has no intention of rejoining the EU single market or customs union, or of restoring free movement. But it does want to “improve” the UK-EU trade deal agreed by Boris Johnson’s government in 2020.
In April, roughly a month before Rishi Sunak called the general election, the EU proposed a youth mobility scheme to appeal to a future Labour government.
It would have allowed Europeans aged 18 to 30 to come to Britain for up to four years to work, travel and study, potentially paving the way for thousands of waiters, baristas and au pairs to plug gaps in the British workforce.
The UK already has reciprocal schemes with 10 non-EU countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Iceland.
They allow those eligible to travel and work in Britain without needing a sponsor or meeting other requirements, such as salary thresholds, without significantly contributing to net migration.
At the press conference in Berlin, Sir Keir repeated his ambition for a “wider reset with Europe”.
While he insisted that did not mean “reversing Brexit or re-entering the single market or the customs union”, he said he was pursuing “a closer relationship on a number of fronts including the economy, including defence, including exchanges”.
He added: “We do not have plans for the youth-mobility scheme, but we do have plans for a closer relationship between us and the EU.”
Asked later if he was completely ruling out any sort of youth mobility scheme, and what that might mean for the treaty with Germany, Sir Keir separated the issue from the pact from Berlin.
He told reporters: “The treaty is a bilateral treaty, so that’s got nothing to do with youth mobility or anything like that. That’s to do with trade, defence, economy, illegal migration, etc.
“In relation to youth mobility, obviously, we’ve been really clear – no single market, no Customs Union, no free movement, no going back into the EU. So the discussion about a close relationship within the EU or with the EU is in that context and within those frameworks.
“I’m convinced that we can have a close relationship notwithstanding those clear red lines that we’ve got and we’ve always had.”
The Lib Dems, who have campaigned for Britain to rejoin the EU in the long-term, said an “ambitious” new relationship with European allies should start with “agreeing a youth-mobility scheme giving young people the opportunity to easily live and work across the continent”.