EU’s demand for more under-30s migration would be ‘very like free movement’

Charles Grant, director of the respected Centre for European Reform, suggested that the Prime Minister may nevertheless have to negotiate on youth mobility to achieve his aim to make trade easier, including by signing a veterinary agreement on food imports and exports.

Grant said some in the EU would respond to Starmer’s demands on trade by saying there can be “no cherry picking” of its single market.

In an open letter to the PM, he went on: “But in fact the EU wants to pick a few cherries of its own: it needs a deal on fish after the current arrangements expire in 2026, it wants an agreement on youth mobility and it would like the UK to rejoin the Erasmus student exchange scheme.

“The EU will do what is in its self-interest and expects some give-and-take.

“You should be ready to bargain with the EU over quid pro quos.

“If enough governments want to change the trading relationship with the UK, the European Council will give the Commission a new mandate to do just that.”