Former Brexit negotiator now open to scrapping Labour’s EU red lines

Detailed summary

Nick Thomas-Symonds says there now needs to be a debate about the different options available to the U.K.

LONDON — Architects of the U.K.’s post-Brexit “red lines” now back a rethink on the EU relations strictures at the next election.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, who served as former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s top negotiator with Brussels, said that Britain should be open to getting rid of the boundaries in the interest of economic growth.

The former Cabinet minister, who led “reset” talks with the EU until July, was one of the staunchest defenders of the red lines — which rule out rejoining the single market, the customs union and restoring freedom of movement.

Labour campaigned and won the 2024 general election on those promises as it sought to move the Brexit conversation on after years of fractious debate.

Thomas-Symonds is the latest Starmer ally to express openness to dropping those restrictions in Labour's manifesto at the next election (which must be held before the end of summer 2029). The comments further demonstrate the shift in opinion in the Labour Party, and its belief that public sentiment has moved with it.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham will meet with continental leaders at a meeting of the European Political Community in Dublin Thursday to help progress another incremental “reset” deal with Brussels that should be signed at a EU-U.K. summit in Brussels.

Around that Nov. 20 summit, the prime minister has committed to go further in setting out what he thinks the options are for future relations with the bloc. He hasn’t taken the option of Britain fully rejoining the EU off the table.

“We do need to have a debate now about what we want to do going forward,” Thomas-Symonds said in an interview in his office in parliament on Tuesday.

The MP for Torfaen said that during his time as a Cabinet Office minister he had frequent conversations with British and European businesses about the post-Brexit red tape holding them back.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Politico Europe. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.