BREXIT RESET WILL COST UK £3BN A YEAR

Sir Keir accused of 'quietly signing Britain up to Brussels'

- JONATHAN WALKER

SIR Keir Starmer is determined to roll back Brexit with an "ambitious" new trade deal - and is not ruling out a full return to the EU single market.

But Brussels is demanding that Britain pays for trade barriers to be reduced and has instructed officials to begin negotiations about “a permanent mechanism for an appropriate financial contribution”.

It emerged last night that if full access to EU markets is granted, the cost to the Treasury could reach some £2.9billion per year. The money would be spent on schemes to develop the economies of poorer member states. Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are quietly signing Britain up to send billions back to Brussels with no say, no vote and no scrutiny.

“Having already handed over half a billion to rejoin the Erasmus student scheme and a further half a billion to France to stop migrant crossings, Labour must come clean now about the true cost to taxpayers.

“When hardworking families are tightening their belts just to get by and businesses are being taxed to within an inch of their life, the country deserves transpar ency not another blank cheque." A similar arrangement is already in place for Norway, which is not a member of the EU but has access to its single market and pays £390million per year for this.

The European Union says the UK's fee will reflect the size of its economy, which is more than seven times that of Norway.