How the UK and EU thrashed out a post-Brexit reset in relations

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : Under the offer, London could have permanently better access for UK food exporters to EU markets in return for a 12-year rollover of the existing fishing agreement.
58% : "That was an important signal," one EU diplomat said.
57% : Johnson's Brexit deal gave EU fishermen access to UK waters until 2026, after which the two sides were meant to negotiate access on an annual basis.
56% : Both sides have now agreed to work towards a such a scheme, under which young people from the UK and the EU could live and work more easily in their respective jurisdictions.
53% : A little while later Starmer was hosting von der Leyen at Lancaster House, to open what she called a "new chapter" in the relationship between the UK and EU.
52% : London has also so far refused to accept Brussels' demand that EU students at British universities be allowed to benefit from the lower university fees paid by their domestic counterparts.
51% : It showed Britain was willing to move into the endgame of talks, including on the highly sensitive issue of fishing rights for EU trawlers in UK waters.
51% : But one EU official, referring to the UK negotiating position on the post-Brexit reset, and how Britain will now be allowed to rejoin the bloc's energy market, said: "This is classic cherry picking and we permitted it." For Starmer and his chief negotiator Michael Ellam, an owlish former Treasury official and spokesperson for ex-Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, the idea of a time-limited veterinary deal was a non-starter.
50% : The threat was implicit -- if a future British government tore up the fishing agreement, the EU could put the squeeze on the UK's food exports again.
49% : "There was a strong feeling in national capitals that we were giving a lot to the Brits but not getting much in return," one EU diplomat said.
47% : French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that if London wanted reduced red tape on UK food exports to EU markets through a so-called veterinary agreement, then France required access for its trawlers to British waters for the same length of time.
44% : " For example, for months Starmer and fellow ministers insisted there were "no plans" for a youth mobility scheme, allowing British negotiators to eventually present a concession on the issue as a "victory" for the EU.
44% : "There was a lot of anger," one EU diplomat said.
43% : Although the UK prime minister is facing a backlash from his predecessor Johnson and other Eurosceptics over his "landmark" reset deal with the EU, Starmer and his officials insisted they had presided over successful negotiations, leaving Britain better off and more secure.
42% : MPs in Starmer's ruling Labour party complained he failed to prepare the ground for his deal with the EU, leaving the way clear for Reform UK's Nigel Farage and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to hail it as an act of "surrender".
41% : The EU was not happy either.
35% : " The Brussels media was full of aggressive briefings from EU diplomats accusing London of bad faith and warning that a deal might not be possible.
35% : But some EU diplomats are sceptical about how much of that chapter will ultimately be written, with one saying British Eurosceptics still controlled the domestic narrative and highlighting the failure to finalise a youth mobility scheme.
30% : Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to move on from the toxic battles of Brexit but the message had clearly not reached Boris Johnson, architect of Britain's exit from the EU.

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