Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to boost the UK economy by unwinding the Brexit deal is “languishing” and “suffering from a lack of direction, definition and drive”, a cross-party group of MPs warned on Wednesday.
The House of Commons foreign affairs committee issued a stinging report on the prime minister’s proposed UK-EU “reset”, saying it was shrouded in secrecy and that the government’s strategic objectives were unclear.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in the spring forecast statement on Tuesday that she wanted to make closer trade ties with Europe a key part of a revamped growth strategy, but MPs said they were still waiting to see the details.
Dame Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the committee, said: “It feels as though we are on a journey with no clear destination.
“In many areas, the government has failed to provide timelines, milestones or priorities and it does not appear to have an ambitious strategic vision for the UK’s new relationship with the EU,” she added.
Starmer and Reeves have promised to remove post-Brexit barriers to trade, starting with a deal that they hope to conclude at an EU-UK summit in either June or July.
Both sides hope to finalise agreement on a new youth mobility scheme and the removal of trade barriers covering food and agricultural products and energy trading. Work on that accord started at a summit in London last May.
But Reeves indicated on Tuesday that she wanted to go further and will give more details of her thinking in a “growth speech” later this month.
She said she wanted to strengthen global relationships, “breaking down trade barriers and deepening alliances with our European partners for a more secured and connected economy”.
The foreign affairs committee said it was still unclear what this new relationship would look like and Reeves’ allies have so far declined to say what the chancellor has in mind.
In the past Reeves has talked about closer UK alignment with EU rules — for example in the chemicals sector — in an attempt to gain closer access to the single market, which Britain left in 2020.
But the bloc remains opposed in principle to the idea of non-member states “cherry picking” access to the single market and negotiations of such a deal would be tough.
Thornberry said the report “calls on the government to end its secrecy over EU matters and set out exactly what it plans to do in the next phase of negotiations in a white paper”.
“Despite setbacks, the government must keep pushing. Fortune favours the bold and showing ambition now will reap rewards later,” she added.
The government said: “Our priorities are clear: working in the national interest to deliver a strategic shift in our relationship with the EU through improved diplomatic, economic and security co-operation.
“We are stripping away the costly bureaucracy and red tape that acts as a drag on growth, backing British jobs and putting more money in people’s pockets across the country.”