EU talks going ‘down to the wire’ ahead of major summit

Talks on a UK-EU deal will continue overnight as the Prime Minister prepares to host the bloc’s leaders on Monday.

Government sources said negotiations were going “down to the wire” with “some outstanding issues on both sides” just hours before the planned UK-EU summit in London.

The summit will see Sir Keir Starmer meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the second time in four days as he aims to strike a deal with the EU on a range of issues.

That includes an expected announcement on defence and security, which could feature an agreement allowing British firms access to a 150 billion euro (£125 billion) EU defence fund.

But reports suggest that agreements on allowing British travellers to use e-gates at European airports, cutting red tape on food exports and setting up a youth mobility scheme with the EU could also be on the table.

On Sunday morning, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds appeared confident agreement could be reached in a number of areas, but declined to give details of any prospective detail, saying: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

Later on Sunday, Government sources said “huge progress” had been made in agreeing “a mutually beneficial deal with the EU” that would “deliver for British working people”.

But they insisted the Prime Minister had been “clear that he will only agree a deal which delivers in the national interest of the United Kingdom”.

Both Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have already described the deal as a “surrender”, despite the details not yet being known, and indicated they would tear it up if they came to power.

Youth mobility could prove a major sticking point for the opposition, and Mrs Badenoch said she feared it would involve a return to free movement “by the back door”.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips there were “very limited circumstances” in which the Tories would support a scheme, saying it must not be “uncapped”.

Existing schemes with countries including Australia and Canada involve limited numbers and require a visa, but the details of any EU scheme remain to be seen.

But the Liberal Democrats have backed a “capped youth mobility scheme”, and the party’s Europe spokesman, James MacCleary, accused the Government of “dragging their heels when it comes to properly negotiating on the issue”.

The Lib Dems have also said that a youth mobility scheme could boost GDP by enough to fund a reversal of the cuts to the winter fuel payment.

But the economic expansion predicted by the Centre for European Reform as a result of a youth mobility scheme would take years to materialise.