UK politics live: Rachel Reeves eyes trade deal with Gulf countries after striking EU Brexit reset pact

Former Brexit secretary Sir David Davis has described Sir Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset of relations with the EU as a “Remainer’s deal”.

The senior Tory MP said the prime minister has been “naive over things like dynamic alignment” and Britain is now “back under the European Court of Justice”.

“That is a really, really serious concession,” he told GB News.

He added: “It’s better to be friendly than not friendly, there’s no two ways about that. I’ve long been an arguer that we should be close to Europe without being run by Europe.

“But the simple truth is that most of the things that were promised to us in this were not really promises. They were forms of words.”

Kemi Badenoch has accused Labour of “dragging Britain backwards” after Sir Keir Starmer secured an EU reset deal with the bloc.

The Tory opposition leader claimed Sir Keir “reopened the old Brexit battles we’ve already fought and won.”

“More EU law. More EU judges. More money sent to Brussels,” she wrote on social media.

The Conservative Party is dogged by its past leaders Liz Truss and Boris Johnson.

Hosting a press conference in response to Sir Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset deal on Monday, Kemi Badenoch was overshadowed by Mr Johnson’s claim the PM had turned Britain once again into Europe’s “orange ball-chewing, leather-trussed gimp”.

And, in a bid to spell out how far Britain’s relationship with Europe has come under Sir Keir, industry minister Sarah Jones on Tuesday hit out at Ms Truss.

She told Sky News: “If you think about where we’ve come from to where we are now, where we had a Prime Minister who couldn’t even say whether France was an ally or not, where negotiations had broken down to the point that people were, you know, making divisive comments in the newspapers, having their ideological positions, which meant that we ended up with a situation where we have rotting food at the borders.”

Labour’s industry minister could not say when British travellers would be able to start using EU e-gates when travelling to the continent.

Sarah Jones came unstuck when asked about when exactly holidaymakers could enjoy the quicker queues touted as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset deal.

After Sky News pointed out that the deal only includes an agreement on “the potential use of e-gates where appropriate”, with each member state deciding whether to agree, she said: “But why would a country choose not to?”

Presenter Wilfred Frost said that had been the case for six years.

The Conservatives do not understand how trade deals work, the industry minister has said. After Kemi Badenoch’s party vowed to put Sir Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset deal “through the shredder”, Sarah Jones said they “don’t quite understand how these things work”.

She hit out at the “pushback” from Tory shadow ministers at contributions Britain will make to gain access to the EU’s 150 billion euro defence fund.

Asked for how much the contributions will amount to, she told Sky News: “There has been pushback from people like the Conservatives who don’t quite understand how these things work.

“We are not paying through any of this for access to markets… where we will pay is where there are joint costs that need to be paid.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the government is nearing a trade pact with six Gulf nations, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as its next major deal.

She told the BBC the agreement would be the government’s “next deal” as it looks to continue to boost post-Brexit trade ties.

Ms Reeves suggested economic growth would be strengthened through recent trade deals with the United States, the EU and India.

“Britain is in a better place than any other country in the world in terms of deals with those countries,” she said.

“The first deal and the best deal so far with the US, we’ve got the best deal with the EU for any country outside the EU, and we’ve got the best trade agreement with India.”

The chancellor also said the UK was “not looking to have trade negotiations with China”.

Mike Galsworthy, chair of European Movement UK, told The Independent: “We already have these schemes with countries all around the world – it’s an absolute no-brainer to have one with the EU. The PM needs to push through with this and ignore the critics, and finally stop our young talent from losing out.”

Peers have inflicted a heavy defeat on the Government for the third time over copyright protections for the creative industries against artificial intelligence (AI).

It came as the upper chamber joined artists and musicians, including Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney, in speaking out against AI companies using copyrighted work without permission.

The House of Lords supported by 287 votes to 118, majority 169, an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill, adding a commitment to introduce transparency requirements, aiming to ensure copyright holders are able to see when their work has been used and by who.

During the Brexit negotiations after the referendum, the notion that Britain could have a trade deal with the US or India while still having favourable access to the EU was sneered at as impossible.

But in a single month Sir Keir Starmer has achieved it, explains The Independent’s political editor David Maddox