Reeves hints at priority as she says ‘trading relationship with Europe arguably more important’ than US – UK politics live | Politics

Good morning. Keir Starmer repeatedly says it is unnecessary, and wrong, for Britain to choose between closer links with the US or with Europe. It is an awkward position for many on the left who believe that a choice between a country under irrational, authoritarian leadership, and an alliance of liberal democracies, should be a no-brainer. The Conservatives want the UK to choose the US.

But there are signs that, behind Starmer’s boilerplate rhetoric, his administration is making a choice. Here are three overnight developments pointing in that direction.

• Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has said the UK’s trading relationship with the EU is “arguably even more important” than its relationship with the US. She made this comment in a BBC interview from Washington, where today she is meeting her US counterpart, Scott Bessant. Reeves told Faisal Islam:

I understand why there’s so much focus on our trading relationship with the US but actually our trading relationship with Europe is arguably even more important, because they’re our nearest neighbours and trading partners.

Obviously I’ve been meeting Scott Bessent this week whilst I’m in Washington, but I’ve also this week met the French, the German, the Spanish, the Polish, the Swedish, the Finnish finance ministers – because it is so important that we rebuild those trading relationships with our nearest neighbours in Europe, and we’re going to do that in a way that is good for British jobs and British consumers.

In one respect, this is a perfectly mundane thing to say. The only controversial thing about it should be Reeves’s use of the word “arguably”, because saying that trade with the EU is more important than trade with the US is just a statement of fact. (They are not even close; on all measures, the EU trade is much larger.) But it is still unusual to hear a Labour minister talk like this given that the government is normally very nervous about sounding remainy, and the statement somewhat undermines Starmer’s ‘false choice’ argument.

• The UK and the EU seem increasingly close to agreeing some sort of youth mobility scheme. Ministers don’t like using the term because they worry Brexiters will associate it with free movement. “A youth mobility scheme is not part of our plans,” Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of post-Brexit relations with the EU, told MPs yesterday. But a report in the Times today says “there is growing support among government ministers for a youth mobility scheme”. Yvette Cooper, who as home secretary is focused on reducing net migration, had been seen as a blocker. But the Times says she is now open to a scaled down youth mobility scheme, such as a “one in one out” version. It says:

Government sources insisted that Cooper was now supportive in principle of the plan as long as it was “capped” to ensure that there could be no return to pre-Brexit freedom of movement.

One option would be to limit numbers so that the total number of young Europeans coming to live and work in the UK did not exceed the number of British people going to Europe. Another possibility would be to set a proportionate cap with a defined limit each year.

• Downing Street has said that Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen want the UK-EU post-Brexit reset, which is due to be agreed at a summit next month, to be “as ambitious as possible”. Starmer and von der Leyen met in No 10 yesterday, and last night a No 10 spokesperson issued this readout.

[Starmer and von der Leyen] had a long and productive discussion focused on a range of issues including Ukraine, energy security, the global economy, and defence …

Discussing the ongoing negotiations to strengthen the UK-EU partnership, they both agreed that good progress had been made. They asked their teams to continue their important work in the coming weeks, with the aim of delivering as ambitious a package as possible at the first UK-EU summit next month.

The prime minister was clear that he will seize any opportunity to improve the lives of working people in the United Kingdom, drive growth and keep people safe – and he believes a strengthened partnership between the UK and the EU will achieve this.

Downing Street readouts are normally dull to the point of meaninglessness and so for No 10 to say that the conversation was “long and productive” almost implies ‘get a room’ levels of cordiality. And the line about the deal being “as ambitious as possible” is tantalising in its implications.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, will be campaigning with Luke Campbell, his party’s candidate for mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, in Hull. Later they will be in Beverley.

9.30am: MPs debate private members’ bills, starting with Stephen Gethins’ devolution (immigration) (Scotland) bill.

Morning: Kemi Badenoch is campaigning in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Morning: Carla Denyer, the Green party’s co-leader, is campaigning in Dartford in Kent.

Afternoon: North Kesteven district council is expected to rule on a claim that Reform UK’s Andrea Jenkyns cannot be a candidate for Greater Lincolnshire mayor because the address where she is registered to vote in the constituency is not her main home.

4pm (UK time): Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is meeting the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent in Washington.

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