Bridging the Channel: The Labour Plan to Improve EU-UK Relations
As the UK Labour Party storms into Downing Street for the first time since Brexit, let’s examine what this means for EU-UK relations in the years ahead.
The Labour Party’s anticipated landslide victory in the UK general election held on July 4th has paved the way for EU-UK relations to turn to a new page.
The Conservative Party had been in power since 2010, during which they oversaw the referendum on EU membership in 2016 and “delivered Brexit” in 2020, with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) coming fully into effect in January 2021.
This is a guest post from Grant Dunnery, EU Public Affairs Consultant at Whitehouse Communications. More on Grant below.
Throughout the general election campaign over the past six weeks, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU has been notably absent as both Labour and the Conservatives have seldom mentioned Brexit and its impact on the UK’s present and future. This is in sharp contrast to the previous general election in 2019, during which Prime Minister Boris Johnson framed the election as a decisive vote on his Conservative government’s proposed Brexit deal.
The Labour Party has clearly stated in its manifesto that there will be no UK return to the EU Single Market, Customs Union, or a reintroduction of freedom of movement.
What is the current state of play?
Since the signing of the Windsor Framework between the EU and UK in February 2023 to address issues related to trade diversion in Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland/Ireland Protocol, the tension overshadowing EU-UK relations following the agonising half-decade of negotiating Brexit has begun to thaw.
Additionally, the war in Ukraine and rising geopolitical tensions have necessitated closer coordination between the EU and UK, as well as other Western liberal democratic partners, on security and defence. A key example of this is that both the EU and the UK, under Conservative governance, continue to supply military defence means to Ukraine and cooperate through the broader geopolitical security framework conceived by French President Emmanuel Macron, the ‘European Political Community’. The Labour Party manifesto for government clearly emphasises their intention to continue to support Ukraine to defend itself militarily and to work in partnership with the EU to improve security through an “improved and ambitious relationship with our European partners". Labour’s manifesto also highlights a desire to work with the EU to tackle the operations of criminal smuggler gangs.
On the other side of the Channel, the European elections last month to elect 720 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for a five-year period, coinciding with the likely timeframe of the next Labour-led UK Government, resulted in gains for political-right and far-right parties such as the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID). That said, more moderate and centrist forces such as the European People's Party (EPP) made marginal gains, with the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) holding relatively steady, suffering only minor losses. While the European Parliament is more divided on many issues, there is a broad consensus among political groups across the spectrum that closer cooperation with the UK on security and defence is favourable.
Looking ahead
More broadly, the TCA serves as the primary framework for EU-UK relations and is due to be reviewed on a five-year basis, meaning this will take place in 2026.
While the Leader of the Labour Party and new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, had in the past described the TCA as “too thin,” suggesting that he would like to see a substantive deepening of the TCA, in recent months his comments on the revision of the TCA have been far more subdued and infrequent. Additionally, the EU does not envision a substantive overhaul of the TCA in 2026, as Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, commented that the review “does not constitute a commitment to reopen the TCA.” With this in mind, the review of the EU-UK trading framework is expected to be more of an administrative check-up with minor adjustments.
That said, the Labour government is expected to negotiate a veterinary agreement with the EU to strip back post-Brexit border checks, seek to finalise a mutual recognition agreement for professional qualifications, and secure a deal to provide UK touring artists with the right to temporarily work in the EU.
Additionally, while the European Commission’s proposal in April to establish an EU-UK youth mobility scheme was quickly rejected as a non-starter by both the Conservatives and Labour, there is a reasonable possibility that this idea could be rekindled in the coming years. Keir Starmer likely shut down the idea due to the timing of the proposal, only a matter of months before a UK general election, as acceptance could have jeopardised Labour’s position that there will be no return to freedom of movement.
In summary — don’t get your hopes up
Over the next five years, we will likely see the tone of EU-UK relations steadily improve as the immediate memory of Brexit negotiations recedes.
Rising geopolitical tensions and global challenges will lead to deeper cooperation on security and defence, while the TCA review in 2026 is expected to have a minimal impact on the current trading arrangements.
Political will on both sides of the Channel to discuss Brexit and any potential of the UK rejoining the EU is at an all-time low.
Grant Dunnery is an EU Public Affairs Consultant at the political consultancy Whitehouse Communications, which has a presence in both London and Brussels. He serves EU and UK clients across a multitude of sectors, providing EU political insight, policy analysis, and stakeholder engagement.
He previously worked in Brussels for a financial services consultancy and has a particular interest in EU-UK relations in the post-Brexit context.
Grant interned at the European Parliament Liaison Office in the UK and holds an MA in European Studies from KU Leuven.
Feel free to connect with Grant on LinkedIn or to reach out directly at grant.dunnery@whitehousecomms.com.
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