Starmer told to be 'more ambitious' with EU deal

The Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee has urged Sir Keir Starmer to be courageous” in resetting his relationship with Europe to tackle the suffering” caused by Brexit.

- KATE DEVLIN WHITEHALL EDITOR

Dame Emily Thornberry, who was a member of the prime minister’s shadow cabinet in opposition, said economic growth had been “severely compromised” by trade barriers created by the UK leaving the EU.

Brexit is on course to cost 4 per cent of gross domestic product per year, according to official statistics from the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility. And the Labour leader is scrambling to avert a crisis facing his much-vaunted Brexit reset deal with the EU, due to be unveiled at a summit in London tomorrow.

Sir Keir held eleventh-hour talks with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and French president Emmanuel Macron on Friday, on the fringes of the European Political Community summit in Albania, amid fears an agreement to secure closer ties could be derailed with just days to go.

Officials are in deadlock over issues including a demand from EU states for EU students to pay lower British tuition fee rates for universities, which could cost the UK an estimated £1bn, while President Macron is also leading a charge for demands that EU fishermen can fish in British waters as part of a deal to allow trade barriers to be removed.

But in an interview with the