Reeves vows to stick to EU red lines after Brussels talks

Rachel Reeves has stubbornly insisted that the Labour government will stick to our red lines” over the Brexit reset with the EU despite growing evidence that a more fundamental change is needed in the relationship.

- DAVID MADDOX

Ms Reeves became the first chancellor to join European member state finance ministers and EU commissioners for a meeting in Brussels since Brexit, with hopes running high that it would herald a more open-minded approach to reworking the flawed EU deal left by Boris Johnson.

But at the subsequent press conference, Ms Reeves made it clear that the government does not intend to budge from its original red lines. Pressure has begun to mount for a more fundamental reconsideration of EU or single market membership with the re-election of Donald Trump and concerns of an international trade war with the UK being hit by US tariffs.

But Ms Reeves said “negotiations” between Britain and the EU will start in the new year and her visit to Brussels yesterday was in order to begin to “rebuild bonds of trust that have been fractured”.