Burnham’s bold Brexit reset hopes at risk over visas for under-30s

Andy Burnham has a lot on his plate as his summer honeymoon as Prime Minister draws to a close and the real business of Parliament begins on Tuesday. But while he wants to focus on the home agenda, across the Channel there is a similar back-to-school feel of what in Brussels is known as la rentree – literally the re-entry or return – as European Union officials swap their shorts and t-shirts for suits, ties and heels. And top of the agenda is the Burnham reset of Keir Starmer’s Brexit reset. Starmer had all but tied up a deal – with visas for under-30s still a sticking point – before he was ousted from Downing Street. Shorts Burnham has said he wants to go deeper, and EU negotiators have spied a gap to push even harder on the thorny issue of how many under-30s should be allowed into the UK under a youth exchange scheme. Negotiations set to start this week The negotiations with Burnham’s new team are due to start this week, and will be decisive in the much-heralded Brexit reset, and the future relationship of the UK with Europe. At stake is not just whether students can study abroad – but British manufacturing and defence against a belligerent Russia. The key to unlocking a significant deal is the under-30s issue. The immediate task, however, sounds mundane but matters: fixing a date for the next UK-EU summit. The meeting was originally scheduled for July 22 but was postponed after Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation, depriving negotiators of the deadline that had been driving efforts to complete a first package of agreements. Both sides now expect a summit this autumn, with Starmer saying an interview earlier in August that November looked the most likely. For Burnham, it will be an early opportunity to “reset the reset,” as one UK official described the task. Starmer transformed the atmosphere after the acrimony of the Conservative years, restoring trust and regular political contact. But progress on substance was painfully slow as his government remained hemmed in by self-imposed red lines ruling out the Single Market, Customs Union and freedom of movement. Brussels gradually lowered the high expectations that greeted Starmer’s arrival, with officials complaining about the cautious pace and limited ambition of the reset. Burnham wants to be ‘bolder’ Burnham told European Council president António Costa that Britain needs to be “bolder” about moving closer to the EU, when the two shared a train to Kyiv on Sunday evening as they headed to Ukrainian capital to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day. Hamish Falconer, the new Cabinet minister heading the EU reset talks, has also said he wants “a deeper relationship, a more ambitious relationship with the EU,” and that there is “room to be ambitious” within Labour’s red lines. His first test is likely to be youth mobility, the most difficult element of the package inherited from Starmer. London has considered limiting a reciprocal scheme for 18-to-30-year-olds to around 50,000 EU citizens annually, while European governments want a figure above 100,000. An agreement would unlock progress on a package of less contentious measures, including an agrifood deal intended to remove many border checks on food. Brussels is also demanding that EU students should pay the same university tuition fees as UK students, rather than substantially higher international rates, insisting that this is needed for a youth mobility deal and the wider package of agreements to go ahead. Wrangle over tuition fees But the UK argues that it never agreed to discuss tuition fees in this round of negotiations. With a clamp down on foreign students to bring migration down, many cash-strapped universities would baulk at the foreign students who do arrive paying lower fees. The i Paper last week reported that Burnham is willing to discuss a concession to the EU in this area – but only if the UK gets more than the current package in return, including shielding from Brussels’ protectionist ‘Buy European’ policies and wider trade benefits. But these negotiations are increasingly regarded in Brussels as unfinished business from the Starmer era. The more important question is what Burnham wants to do next. Sandro Gozi, the Italian MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s delegation dealing with Britain, says Burnham needs to decide whether he sticks with the incremental approach of the past two years. “The big question is whether he intends to maintain all of Starmer’s red lines,” Gozi says. “It depends on how deep he wants the partnership to become.” Defence could prove a big test Gozi says there was still considerable scope for cooperation under the existing arrangements but warns: “If Burnham wants to intensify the partnership between now and 2029, then removing some of those red lines will inevitably come onto the agenda.” Defence could prove the biggest test. Britain and the EU have established a security and defence dialogue, but Brussels is rapidly developing programmes designed to strengthen a European defence industry and reduce dependence on American suppliers. Europeans would be watching whether Burnham seeks deeper British involvement in EU defence programmes, including the next phase of the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative, a €150bn EU defence loans scheme. That feeds directly into another looming problem: the EU’s increasingly assertive ‘Buy European’ industrial strategy. Brussels is considering rules favouring European manufacturers for public procurement and subsidies in strategic industries, potentially leaving British companies outside some of their biggest markets. Britain’s car industry has already warned about the consequences.