UK politics live: Minister gives verdict on rejoining EU after ‘win-win’ Brexit reset deal – UK Times

A landmark deal has been agreed between Britain and the European Union after a last-minute breakthrough in Sir Keir Starmer’s reset talks, The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke writes.

Sir Keir – who has made the Brexit reset a centrepiece of his administration – said Monday’s summit marks a “new era” of relations with the bloc, adding that it is about “moving on from stale old debates” and “looking forward, not backwards”.

Some issues have proven thornier than others, with the topic of fishing rights understood to have been a key stumbling block for negotiators that was only solved in the early hours of the morning.

Meanwhile, talks surrounding a youth mobility scheme appear to have ended in a deadlock.

As the prime minister faces judgement on how successful his mission to reset relations with the EU has really been, The Independent takes a look at exactly what has been agreed.

A second man has been charged over suspected arson attacks on properties and a car linked to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26 has been charged with conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life following a series of fires in north London, the Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning.

Read the full story by The Independent’s senior reporter Tara Cobham here:

Former Brexit secretary Sir David Davis has described Sir Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset of relations with the EU as a “Remainer’s deal”.

The senior Tory MP said the prime minister has been “naive over things like dynamic alignment” and Britain is now “back under the European Court of Justice”.

“That is a really, really serious concession,” he told GB News.

He added: “It’s better to be friendly than not friendly, there’s no two ways about that. I’ve long been an arguer that we should be close to Europe without being run by Europe.

“But the simple truth is that most of the things that were promised to us in this were not really promises. They were forms of words.”

Kemi Badenoch has accused Labour of “dragging Britain backwards” after Sir Keir Starmer secured an EU reset deal with the bloc.

The Tory opposition leader claimed Sir Keir “reopened the old Brexit battles we’ve already fought and won.”

“More EU law. More EU judges. More money sent to Brussels,” she wrote on social media.

The Conservative Party is dogged by its past leaders Liz Truss and Boris Johnson.

Hosting a press conference in response to Sir Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset deal on Monday, Kemi Badenoch was overshadowed by Mr Johnson’s claim the PM had turned Britain once again into Europe’s “orange ball-chewing, leather-trussed gimp”.

And, in a bid to spell out how far Britain’s relationship with Europe has come under Sir Keir, industry minister Sarah Jones on Tuesday hit out at Ms Truss.

She told Sky News: “If you think about where we’ve come from to where we are now, where we had a Prime Minister who couldn’t even say whether France was an ally or not, where negotiations had broken down to the point that people were, you know, making divisive comments in the newspapers, having their ideological positions, which meant that we ended up with a situation where we have rotting food at the borders.”

Labour’s industry minister could not say when British travellers would be able to start using EU e-gates when travelling to the continent.

Sarah Jones came unstuck when asked about when exactly holidaymakers could enjoy the quicker queues touted as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset deal.

After Sky News pointed out that the deal only includes an agreement on “the potential use of e-gates where appropriate”, with each member state deciding whether to agree, she said: “But why would a country choose not to?”

Presenter Wilfred Frost said that had been the case for six years.