EU requires more than just honeyed words from Reeves

Labour keeps talking about 'resetting' our relationship with Europe but then turning down chances to advance, writes James Moore. It's time they actually did something concrete

- James Moore

Her European colleagues don’t need her lecturing them on that point – they know it as well as she does. But there’s a problem with the Labour government continually talking about its desire for a “reset” with Europe after the chaos, controversy, pettiness and hostility that characterised the various Conservative administrations that preceded it.

A case in point. When the EU made the offer of a youth mobility scheme, which had a lot to offer Britain’s young people, as well as their peers in the EU, Sir Keir Starmer immediately rejected it. The prime minister also said he had “no plans” to rejoin the Erasmus student exchange scheme earlier this summer.

You could argue that his aims with this were political and necessary, to show he was committed to his “red lines” – no return to freedom of movement, in particular – to counter criticism of Brexit backsliding from the likes of Reform. But here’s the thing: they would deem almost any concrete attempt to improve relations, and help the British economy by doing so, as backsliding.