PM wants Brexit reset deal agreed in three months

Sir Keir Starmer’s chief negotiator says the UK must be ruthlessly pragmatic” with Brexit reset talks and strike an ambitious deal in just three months.

- DAVID MADDOX

European affairs minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told the EUUK Forum in Brussels yesterday that the prime minister will host a leader summit in May "where we hope we can deliver a balanced yet ambitious outcome to benefit all our citizens". The approach to the talks contrasts heavily with years taken by the Tories to negotiate Brexit after the 2016 referendum, bogged down by disputes in parliament and fractures in the Conservative Party before eventually leaving in 2020.

Among other issues on the table will be a youth mobility scheme for under-30s as well as cooperation on trade, defence, energy security and tackling crime and illegal migration. Mr ThomasSymonds, who is based in the Cabinet Office, set the tough timetable as he prepared to enter the first round of talks later with EU representatives. He told the audience "We can do better", highlighting "unnecessary barriers to trade" and a failure to properly cooperate over the migrant crisis.

The speech came amid international turbulence with the continued war in Ukraine and Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China and the EU. Mr Thomas-Symonds underlined Sir Keir's offer for the UK to play a much bigger role in European defence cooperation as part of the negotiations, but he said it needed to go much further on economic matters too.