Andy Burnham under pressure from EU to not deport foreign criminals, says leaked deal
Andy Burnham will promise not to send foreign criminals back to EU countries at a 'surrender summit' this week, according to a leaked draft agreement with the bloc.
The proposed deal was last night described by Kemi Badenoch as a sign the Prime Minister will agree to 'a laundry list of extra costs for struggling families' at the meeting in Brussels on Friday.
And it comes as pro-Brexit campaigners suggest the UK could be forced to take in more than 4,400 extra asylum seekers a year, or pay Brussels an extra £76 million annually, if Mr Burnham's Brexit 'reset' leads to Britain rejoining the EU.
The Prime Minister has said he plans to use the UK-EU summit as the launch pad for a 'conversation' on future relations, which could end with Britain going 'all the way' back into the Brussels club.
Aside from the foreign-prisoners section, the draft agreement:
- Includes a commitment to make contributions to regional development funds and the bloc's electricity market.
- Grants permission for young people from all 27 EU countries to live in Britain for up to three years to work, study or travel without any cap, age limit, visa fee or NHS surcharge.
- Puts Britain on a course towards signing up to Brussels' tariffs on Chinese cars and steel.
The Prime Minister will promise not to send foreign criminals back to EU countries at a 'surrender summit' this week
The section on prisoners declares, on Britain's part, that 'the UK recognises the concerns of the EU with the early removal and deportation of foreign national offenders from the UK to the EU Member States in particular under the Sentencing Act 2026' and that 'the UK commits not to proceed with such removals and deportations in the future'.
Officials insist the leaked draft is an early version of the final agreement – to be signed by Mr Burnham and EU counterpart Ursula von der Leyen – and that intense negotiations have continued since it was drawn up.
But Tory leader Mrs Badenoch told The Mail on Sunday: 'Andy Burnham's EU reset is rapidly becoming a laundry list of extra costs for struggling families. Whether it's being asked to pay into Europe's electricity market, which is likely to push up energy bills, or paying into an EU asylum fund with no guarantee it stops a single small boat, it looks like Burnham is being taken for a ride.
'With stagnating economies and riots across the continent, Europe has plenty of its own problems right now.
'It doesn't make any sense to be signing Britain up to rules and payments that will do nothing to fix the problems we have back home.'
Meanwhile, Stay Out – set up by former Vote Leave supporters to resist Mr Burnham's Brexit 'reset' – said that if the UK re-entered the EU, this country would be obliged to join the bloc's asylum solidarity scheme. The programme fines member states if they don't take in asylum seekers relocated from other countries.
Britain's share would be 4,444 people a year, in addition to those already arriving illegally on small boats.
The alternative would be to make a payment of €20,000 (£17,000) for every person Britain does not take – or £75.6 million a year – which would be in addition to the £750 million-a-week predicted to be the UK's weekly membership bill.
Stay Out is backed by leading figures across the Brexiteer spectrum, including former Vote Leave chief Michael Gove and Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice.
Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice has backed Stay Out – set up by former Vote Leave supporters to resist Mr Burnham's Brexit 'reset'
Mr Tice said last night: 'Rejoining the EU would mean sending hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money to Brussels to get a load of asylum seekers in return. It would be madness.
'The last thing this country needs is more asylum hotels that cost the taxpayer billions and leave local communities petrified.'
Stay Out has suggested that annual payments by Britain to the EU could total £39 billion a year after any re-entry, equivalent to £756 million a week – more than the £350 million a week which was controversially used by Vote Leave in the 2016 referendum.
The size of the EU's annual budget has doubled since the UK voted to leave a decade ago, while the bloc has also introduced a number of green levies which the UK would have to pay.
This would all take place without the annual rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher.
Oliver Lewis, chairman of Stay Out and former deputy chief negotiator for the UK during Brexit, said: 'Andy Burnham wants to rejoin the EU without telling the public it would mean thousands more asylum seekers sent here from southern Europe every year, enough to fill dozens more hotels, on top of a £750 million-a-week membership fee.
'If we refuse to accept whatever number Brussels decides, Britain would face a bill of almost £1.5 million a week. There would be no veto, no opt-out and no end date, and the bill would rise whenever other European countries voted to raise it.'
There were also dire warnings last night that any attempt to reverse the 2016 referendum could lead to Labour losing power.
Labour MP Graham Stringer said that, contrary to what 'many people in the Westminster bubble' thought, voters had not changed their mind about quitting the EU.
He added: 'Such a betrayal could cost Labour the next election.'
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