The great ‘EU Reset’ of 19 May – when the first formal UK-EU summit since Brexit will take place – is rapidly approaching. Yet even before Keir Starmer and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen meet in London to thrash out an agreement, advance attempts to sell the new relationship are growing.
That so much surrounding Monday’s UK-EU summit in London is being kept secret on either side of the Channel is auspicious
‘UK wins £500m in science grants from EU Horizon scheme after Brexit lockout,’ the Guardian excitedly told its readers earlier this month. It claimed that British scientists were ‘over the moon’ with Britain’s return to the EU’s flagship science research programme.
The Guardian’s positioning, like that of the Remainer lobby more generally, is a template for Labour’s ‘reset’ and subsequent after-sales service. Britain, we’re told, will benefit dramatically from access to EU markets and programmes that Brexit has denied her. However, a closer look at Britain’s return to the Horizon scheme (under the Conservatives) reveals the true nature of what Labour’s EU ‘reset’ is likely to replicate in a host of areas.
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