The EU reset has come too late to help Starmer's ratings

Just for a change, a Labour manifesto promise is going to be fulfilled. The Brexit reset” Keir Starmer has long promised has been, mostly, done. The broad outlines are clear, even if the details of the youth mobility scheme and British access to the newly enlarged European defence market are yet to be finalised.

- SEAN O'GRADY

It is exactly as Labour promised in its election campaign last year: “Labour will work to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU, by tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade.

“We will seek to negotiate a veterinary agreement to prevent unnecessary border checks and help tackle the cost of food; will help our touring artists; and secure a mutual recognition agreement for professional qualifications to help open up markets for UK service exporters. Labour will seek an ambitious new UK-EU security pact to strengthen cooperation on the threats we face.”

Most of those boxes have now been ticked, and there is no realistic prospect that the government will seek to rejoin the European Union, its single market or the customs union, again as stated in the manifesto.

A pedant – and they are numerous in the Eurosceptic community – might interpret the youth mobility scheme as a breach of the Labour pledge that there would be “no return to free movement”. However, given that the scheme will be capped, time-limited, linked to a visa, have no rights attached – least of all for dependants – and no social security, and require a prepaid NHS surcharge, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a free-for-all. A few thousand Italian kids won’t tear the fabric of British society apart.