That Nick Thomas-Symonds gave his EU counterpart a gift of whisky and got wine in return will seem to some all-too typical of how things turn out when the UK negotiates with Brussels.
But the cabinet minister tasked with the Brexit reset said he has learned to appreciate Slovakian red while Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s lead negotiator, “absolutely loved” his Welsh whisky.
For now it certainly seems like a love-in. “There was a lovely moment when [Sefcovic] was speaking in the Downing Street garden on the day of the [UK-EU] summit when he said he had this issue where his wife had picked up his phone and said, ‘Who is this Nikki you keep speaking to?’. And he’d had to reassure her that this was Nick and Nick was actually the UK’s lead negotiator.”
The deal announced on 19 May gave UK defence firms the right to bid for part of a new EU fund in return for extending access to UK fishing waters. It committed the two sides for further talks on animal health and food safety rules – opening the way to the return of the EU pet passport – and to exploring closer ties on energy and carbon trading.
However, the chance for young people from the EU and UK to live and work in each other’s countries if anything receded as Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, dug her heels in over visa numbers and the EU refused to accept a more limited scheme.
The Government met with EU counterparts in May as part of Starmer’s drive to reset post-Brexit relations and secure new deals with Europe (Photo: Getty)It was said of Brexit that it wasn’t a moment but a process. The same could be true of the reset.
The warm words in the May sunshine were one thing – but the line-by-line negotiations haven’t even begun, indeed the EU member states won’t decide their common position – or mandate – until this autumn.
So Thomas-Symonds, one of Starmer’s closest allies, has the task of convincing voters that tangible benefits are coming – while thrashing out the details of a series of mini-reset deals with Brussels over the coming months and years.
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Speaking to The i Paper from his office in Downing Street, he says he knows voters will need to feel the difference by the time they next go to the polls. “We will certainly be looking to deliver our deal and have the benefits of it before the next general election.”
He says the deal gives Labour a great dividing line and that the Tories are in a mess about what to do about Brexit. “If the opposition parties seriously want to go into an election saying they want to undo a deal that is lowering bills, that is creating jobs, that’s giving us more tools to protect our borders, that is a political fight we relish.”
The search for immediate benefits has led the Government to claim that British holiday makers will be able to use the same passport e-gates as EU passengers when arriving in some EU destinations. Faro, in Portugal, became the latest to announce the welcome measure last week. But can the minister say – hand on heart – that Faro and other airports wouldn’t have allowed that access without the deal?
“What was in the deal was absolute clarity that there is no barrier to member states not allowing Brits to use e-gates. Now was that lack of clarity a problem? Of course, that lack of clarity was a problem. You’ve only got to ask anybody who has travelled to various member states.”
‘Be firm on our national interest’
In terms of when we can expect to see the return of pet passports, or cheaper food or energy bills – all benefits promised – Thomas-Symonds will only say that he is in an “implementation phase” while pointing to his record so far.
“The prime minister tasked me with delivering this deal, and I managed to do it – supported by a great team – within 10 months. So I hope you take that as an indication of the speed at which I’ve been working, the intensity of which I’ve been working to get this done. And frankly, if you look at the comprehensive list of things that’s in that deal, I think some people would have been surprised that that could have been done within 10 months.”
It is not clear what’s to stop the EU from demanding further concessions from the UK – for instance demanding that it signs up to its own AI regulations, say critics. Thomas-Symonds is adamant that that isn’t on the table.
“We’re going to be very firm on our national interest,” he insists. “On something like AI, where we obviously want to be a world leader in AI, and we’ve been very firm about what we want to do.”
Thomas-Symonds was an academic historian before becoming MP for his home seat of Torfaen in Wales. He has written biographies of Clement Atlee and Harold Wilson. Which does he think Keir Starmer most resembles? His answer is more politician than academic: Starmer has Atlee’s ruthless determination for public service and Wilson’s pragmatism, he says.
That pragmatism, lest it be forgotten, extended to Wilson remaining neutral on the very question of whether the UK should join the EU 50 years ago.
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