Sir Keir Starmer is preparing legislation that would allow the UK to align more closely with European Union law, marking the most substantive step yet in Labour’s post-Brexit “reset” strategy.
According to reports in The Independent, the government is planning to introduce a bill later this year that would grant ministers the power to dynamically align UK regulations with those of the European Union in selected policy areas. These are expected to include food standards, animal welfare, pesticides and agricultural regulation.
The move would not amount to rejoining the EU or its single market, but it would create a legal framework enabling Britain to automatically mirror certain EU rule changes where formal agreements are reached.
🔷 What is ‘dynamic alignment’ – and why does it matter?
Dynamic alignment allows a non-EU country to keep its domestic regulations in step with EU law in specific sectors, even as those rules evolve over time.
In practice, this would mean that when Brussels updates standards in agreed areas, the UK could adopt those changes domestically without renegotiating treaties each time. Supporters argue this reduces trade friction, particularly for exporters dealing with plant and animal health checks, carbon markets and electricity trading.
Most UK food manufacturers already follow EU rules in order to sell into the bloc, meaning the day-to-day impact inside Britain would be limited. However, ministers believe formal alignment would significantly cut red tape for exporters and help stabilise supply chains that have struggled since Brexit.
🔷 Sovereignty concerns and political backlash
Critics argue the plan would weaken parliamentary sovereignty by obliging the UK to follow laws it no longer has a vote on. Because Britain is no longer an EU member, it would have no formal role in shaping future regulations adopted under dynamic alignment.
Senior Conservatives and Reform UK figures are already preparing to oppose the bill, framing it as a retreat from Brexit. One Tory source described the plan as “accepting EU law by default”, while Reform figures have accused Starmer of “surrendering hard-won freedoms”.
Labour sources counter that alignment would be voluntary, targeted and reversible, and insist Parliament would retain the power to approve which areas fall under the framework.
🔷 Labour grows bolder in its Brexit critique
The proposed legislation follows a notable shift in tone from Downing Street over the past year. Having initially ruled out significant changes to the Brexit settlement, Starmer has become increasingly direct in criticising the promises made during the 2016 referendum campaign.
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, the prime minister accused Brexit’s leading advocates of relying on “slogans and easy answers” rather than credible plans.
He singled out claims about NHS funding and immigration control, arguing that neither materialised after the UK left the EU. He also suggested closer alignment with the single market should be pursued where it clearly serves the national interest.
🔷 Public opinion shifts nearly a decade on
The political landscape around Brexit has changed markedly since the referendum. Multiple polls now show consistent public support for closer ties with the EU, and growing backing for rejoining outright.
A recent poll for the Mirror found that almost six in ten Britons would vote to rejoin the EU if a new referendum were held. Other surveys indicate that support for leaving has fallen below 30%, reflecting generational change and frustration with economic stagnation.
Labour insiders believe this shift has created space for a more pragmatic approach, even if the party remains committed to ruling out a formal rejoin vote during this parliament.
🔷 A reset without rejoining?
The bill is expected to underpin future UK-EU negotiations, including stalled talks on energy cooperation and carbon trading. Last year’s “reset” agreement reopened dialogue and restored UK participation in the Erasmus student exchange scheme, but progress elsewhere has been slow.
By establishing a legal mechanism for alignment, ministers hope to accelerate sector-specific deals without reopening the entire Brexit settlement.
For Starmer, the challenge will be balancing economic pragmatism with political risk – advancing closer EU ties while insisting that Brexit itself is not being reversed by stealth.
61 responses to “Keir Starmer prepares bill to align UK law with EU as part of Brexit reset”
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I am mixed. To be honest, the country was asked the question and government go it’s answer, so the answer is ask the country the question again and go with the result. We do not need half in half out. We need a positive resolution.
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The EU is broke and is in serious debt – rejoining would be a disaster
This year, Europe was marred by economic decline and political dysfunction. What do Remainers see in it?
The EU is a basket case – re-joining would be a disaster
Did anyone really think that UK prime minister Keir Starmer, who spent much of his time in opposition demanding a second referendum on Brexit, had given up on his ambitions to rejoin the EU? The argument is over, he said, during the General Election.
All he wants is a closer and more effective relationship between Britain and Brussels, he said. There’s no question of us rejoining the bloc or applying for associate membership of its Single Market or Customs Union, he said.
Anyone who was tempted to believe all this surely felt the scales fall from their eyes in May, when Starmer unveiled his ‘reset’ deal with the EU. Suddenly, the bloc’s gravitational forces were unleashed in all their horror.
The deal which Starmer negotiated turned out to involve the European Court of Justice, which will be granted powers to adjudicate on whether Britain is sticking to its side of the ‘reset’ deal – bringing us back under the jurisdiction of a foreign court, and one of the main reasons why people voted to leave in the first place.
Meanwhile, the French have done what the French always do and demanded that Britain pay a subscription fee for the privilege of selling its consumers British goods. So much for ‘free’ trade. Not that it will stop French farmers torching our lambs alive on the autoroute if they feel like it. That is the reality, and always has been, of the Single Market – vested interests will always seek a way to frustrate the free flow of goods.
In December, we even had deputy PM David Lammy, following hot on the heels of chancellor Rachel Reeves, telling us that Brexit has damaged the economy. He even appeared to float the idea that Britain should negotiate a new bespoke customs union with the EU.
This came just weeks after Starmer had been proclaiming the advantages of Britain’s trade deal with India and its carveout from US tariffs – neither of which could have happened had we been in an EU customs union.
For Europhiles, 2025 will therefore go down as the year in which Britain’s long march back to EU membership began. Yet while Rejoiners rejoice, there is another reality that has become more stark this year – the extent to which the European Union has fallen behind the rest of the developed world. For all the envious looks Rejoiners cast towards Brussels, and for all the shade they throw at Brexit Britain, life in the EU really is not all they crack it up to be.
Britain, it is true, is economically stagnant. The OECD expects GDP growth in 2025 to be 1.3 per cent. When you take into account population increases that is hardly any sort of growth at all. And you’ve probably heard that Brexit is to blame for these economic struggles.
The only trouble with this narrative is that the EU is even more economically stagnant. France’s GDP growth is predicted to come in at 0.7 per cent, Germany at 0.2 per cent and Italy at 0.5 per cent. People point to Spain as a success story, with growth in 2025 at 2.9 per cent. But then Spain is experiencing a dead-cat bounce from years of economic failure.
You’ve probably also heard that Britain is up to its eyeballs in debt – it currently stands at 93.6 per cent of GDP. But Britain is not quite so much in the soup as are Spain (101.8 per cent), France (113 per cent) or Italy (135.3 per cent).
The EU’s political performance is no better. You’ve probably noticed that Labour backbenchers are standing in the way of the UK government doing what will be necessary to prevent a fiscal crisis. Earlier this year, they stamped their feet so hard over a proposed modest £6 billion cut in the £384 billion welfare budget that Starmer gave way and backtracked. But just look at France, where the government falls whenever it proposes that citizens should work a day beyond the age of 62.
You’ve probably also been told that Britain is a national embarrassment for having had a prime minister, namely Liz Truss, who lasted only 49 days. But matters are no more stable in the EU. Just look at France again.
In September, prime minister Sebastien Lecornu managed to out-Truss Truss by lasting only 27 days before resigning – although he was then appointed back into the job. His immediate predecessors lasted nine months, three months and eight months.
And just how clean are our respective political systems? You’ve no doubt been told that Boris Johnson’s Covid rule-breaking, Angela Rayner’s stamp-duty shenanigans and Rachel Reeves’s overlooked property-letting licence are evidence that Britain is a bit sleazy.
But Johnson, Rayner et al are amateurs in comparison with the behaviour of those working for the sainted EU. Just this month, Federica Mogherini, the EU’s former foreign-policy chief, was arrested as part of an investigation into allegations of multimillion-dollar fraud. This comes against the ongoing Qatar-gate scandal, featuring multiple allegations of bribery involving several former MEPs.
Then there was the farce of the Romanian presidential elections. In 2024, right-wing nationalist and political outsider Calin Georgescu came from nowhere to beat the candidates of Romania’s pro-EU centrist parties.
That result was lamented in Brussels and was quickly overturned by the Romanian courts following allegations of Russian interference. Ahead of the re-run this year, Georgescu was set to participate again – and win. So Romania’s election bureau intervened to prohibit his participation.
In May this year, the EU finally got its way when the pro-EU mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, narrowly beat what was left of the Eurosceptic opposition to become Romania’s president. It looked like a classic case of the EU’s tried-and-trusted election playbook – getting people to keep voting until they deliver the EU’s desired result.
Then there are our respective struggles with energy policy. You are probably aware that Britain is a rustbelt country whose industries are being destroyed by high energy prices driven by Net Zero targets?
So it is, but no more so than Germany, whose once mighty car industry has plunged off the carriageway and is heading for a lamppost. Germany now has the highest domestic energy prices in the EU. There, as here, consumers are rebelling against laws which are trying to force them to fit fantastically expensive heat pumps.
The tragedy of Brexit is that, having voted for it, we have never had a government that seems to have any intention of taking advantage of it. And now we have a Labour government seemingly determined to slowly and surreptitiously reverse it. Starmer, Lammy and Co seem to be convinced that the EU is the answer to Britain’s problems. As should be clear by now, it really isn’t.
Europe is Failing – and Britain Could Do Better.-
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Rejoin asap
A strong EU needed and freedom of movement – all the things we lost through Brexit -
Thats a lot of words for “I’ve got my nose so far up Nigels backside I can smell his halitosis”
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Your commentary is excellent. Really well articulated and researched. However it leaves me feeling that there is relatively minimal difference between Remaining / Leaving / Rejoining / Staying Out in an age with such endemic corruption with zero accountability enforced.
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You who all believe in walking blindly back into the EU ,all I can say is leaving never stopped me traveling to the Eu ,only we bow down to their demands no other EU country gives a dam only we pay fine after fine ,but as always your do as you please under this lying dictator who is determined to ruin the uk fully and accept in case you have missed that line millions more immigrants legal @illegal so glad my life is nearly over ,it’s you petulant reminers who are blind by fools ,it was you ,REMAINER,s who threatened us with punishment if we dared to vote leave ,it was Macron who vowed to flood our country with illegals again if we dared to leave ,it was you who spent weekend for over a yr stomping up and down in London shouting we the leavers where lied to REALLY do not make me laugh , your just another bunch of pathetic fools who cannot bare to loose ,but happy for these unelected corrupt crooks to bleed us dry we gave far far more than they ever give
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Who is ‘walking blindly back’? The majority of the electorate want to return – based on the experiences and facts that have emerged about the Brexit disaster.
And who are the ‘corrupt crooks’ of which you write? Are they in any way connected to the liars that missold Brexit to the electorate?
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An unequivocal YES, of course we should rejoin.
Take away all the economic, societal, geographic and political advantages to being part of the EU (of which there are many), why on earth would somebody vote to take away freedoms from; themselves, their children, their grandchildren………WHY?
It was farcical 10years ago and it’s still farcical today!
REJOIN as soon as practicable to do so! -
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As a small business owner, I buy goods from the mainland UK. Brexit has caused so many logistical paperwork, i spend so much of my time, filling in forms applying for TSS numbers, EORI numbers, etc. My heads melted with it, I’d rejoin tomorrow in a heartbeat. The whole situation makes life very difficult as it is.
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I don’t mind someone to have their own opinion, but when they live in a different dimension and even seeing the truth, but insisting on their old values, they will not be the visionaries of the new world. People that are ready to cut their hands only for making me feel worse, don’t deserve my respect.
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Brexit was the answer to a problem that leave told you existed .
It’s up there with Santa & the cheques in the mail as most believed lie -
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Loss of freedom of movement means at 76 am no longer able to visit France as costs are so high.
We have left the UK wide open to usa , chemical use on our farms
destroying our bee population, along with an increase of cancer. let the EU rules protect us from Trump wanting access to our food chain.-
I would love to rejoin tomorrow, however, I do.think it is important to hold another vote, just to preserve democracy and to show the EU that Britain is coming back to stay. I also think we need to look at the deal the EU will give us to rejoin
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The EU would be very happy to see the UK rejoin. <3 The UK is greatly appreciated and admired by the EU. We were very sad when you left, especially for the sake of future generations, educational exchange programmes, etc. And the UK would actually make the EU an EU. With its re-entry, the EU would immediately become a superpower and a big player, which would have to be acknowledged worldwide; it would mean a lot of savings for the UK that could be invested in its people.
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The EU would be very happy to see the UK rejoin. <3 The UK is greatly appreciated and admired by the EU. We were very sad when you left, especially for the sake of future generations, educational exchange programmes, etc. And the UK would actually make the EU an EU. With its re-entry, the EU would immediately become a superpower and a big player, which would have to be acknowledged worldwide; it would mean a lot of savings for the UK that could be invested in its people.
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Totally agree with your comment. It would be irresponsible to make a decision without knowing, and fully understanding, the terms of the agreement.
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Rubbish,the EU want our money,done correctly which it hasn’t been it would benefit us tremendously,cannot believe people want to rejoin that useless money grabbing rabble.G Ward
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The amount of money that comes back to our universities, farming, business, etc., is way more than we paid. Which ets not forget what we were supposed to save would go into the NHS, but it hasnt has it…? No, and most of the people who voted for it are either dead or dying in the next 10 years, so it was not their place to dictate to the youth what is best. Plus, the man who sold us this crap was the man who wants theUK to be like the US “FARAGE” the grifter, changed party name to distance himself from the mess it was and says it would have been better if he was in charge, yeah right…! Sick of these grifter posh boys trying to tell us the working class who make this country tick what’s best for us. Nazi S—Thead…!
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Excellent reply. Children should be have been educated in both EU and UK government, the UKs veto powers and how EU laws are accepted. They should be taught how it affects them and how they can be involved in the processes of governance.
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Nigel farage championed to the exit vote simply to say “I told you so” the EU commission. Should never have left on a promise built on lies.
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Ok, here goes. A Biggie. Britain rejoining the European Union would not be an act of nostalgia or surrender; it would be a calm and confident decision to put practicality back in charge of policy, after years in which ideology took the wheel and promptly drove into a ditch.
Firstly, there is the simple matter of trade, the unglamorous engine room of everyday prosperity. Membership meant frictionless access to our largest and nearest market, fewer forms, fewer delays, and fewer costs quietly passed on to shoppers. Since leaving, British exporters have faced barriers that exist for no good reason other than pride, and pride, alas, cannot be eaten, worn, or used to pay the electricity bill. We have all seen the queues at ports!
Then there is influence, that most misunderstood currency. Within the EU, Britain helped shape the rules that govern the continent. Outside, we still follow many of those rules when trading, but now we do so without a pen in hand. Rejoining would restore our voice, not erase it, allowing Britain to shape standards on technology, climate, and labour, rather than standing in the corridor listening through the door.
There is also the question of growth, that elusive thing every government promises and rarely delivers. The EU is a magnet for investment precisely because it is big, stable, and predictable. Being part of that ecosystem once made Britain a natural gateway for global firms. Walking back in would signal that the country is open again, steady again, serious again. In today’s climate, we need to be stronger and united.
Freedom, often invoked in defence of Brexit, also deserves a gentler definition. For ordinary people, freedom is the ability to live, work, study, and love across borders without paperwork piling up like bad weather. Not to mention posting packages to friends and family abroad without the hassle of customs! Rejoining would restore those everyday freedoms, especially for the young, whose horizons were quietly narrowed without their consent.
Finally, there is realism. The great challenges of our age, climate change, security, and migration, do not respect borders or slogans. They require cooperation, patience, and shared institutions. The EU is imperfect, like all human creations, but it is a forum where problems are tackled collectively rather than shouted at from afar.
Rejoining the EU would not be about pretending Brexit never happened. It would be about learning from it. Britain has always done its best work when it combines confidence with cooperation. Stepping back into Europe would be less a retreat and more a homecoming, the sort that says, we tried the other road, it did not lead where we hoped, now let us choose the wiser path forward, together. I hope and wish you could all learn from such a past decision that was not good at all for the UK.. 🙂
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Reverse the madness and stop the country suffering. I want future generations to have the same freedoms I had and not be manacled by the ill informed lunacy of Brexit.
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Get as close as possible to the EU and recoup the 6%+ of GDP lost to the Brexidiocy and prosecute the perpetrator while you’re at it …
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Ive met no british people who remember being educated on EEC/EU in school. Ask yourself, honestly, were you?
A distinct & likely purposeful lack of education in such an important & fundamental part of british life is a serious issue to be addressed, especially considering the base reasoning & timing behind its very beginning; post world war peace keeping between long time enemies, thrashing out differences across a table rather than a barbed no man’s land needlessly soaked with the blood of millions. It is time people woke to reality; Britain without its neighbours, is nothing more than a desperate lonely vulnerable hollow blinkered shell of faux-empiracal fancy.-
A little, but then I did an economics and politics A level. I then did a law degree, which included a lot of EU treaty snd EU law study.
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Excellent reply. Children should be have been educated in both EU and UK government, the UKs veto powers and how EU laws are accepted. They should be taught how it affects them and how they can be involved in the processes of governance.
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We need to have the security of an alignment with Europe now more than ever, at least it offers some protection in unsettled times. Without it we’re just isolated. The world is fracturing and we need to be in a block.
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Let’s hope this reset is a prelude to properly applying to rejoin. The world has moved on and we need to unite as Europeans more then ever. Brexit was a mess fueled by Russian interference and marred by lies. Time for our elected representatives to do what is best for the country.
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We are Europeans!!! How ‘kin stu pid are remainers???
We should no longer be following the parasitic, corrupt, fascist eu clubs rules, but we were betrayed by Sedwill, Robbins and the other treacherous civil servants that did their damndest to keep us in!!
Followed by useless Boris whom signed us up to a Brino!!
The aforementioned eu club is in tatters, Von der lying doing a great job!! 🤣🤣🤣
Rejoin….. give your head a wobble!!!-
Agreed . We will have all the constraints of the EU and no freedom to refuse because starmer will tangle it up in so much red tape it will be impossible to get out of. Let Reform do a proper brexit the tories never even tried. We will suffer for voting out of the EU. Starmer may be a good lawyer representing criminals but he’s not got a clue as a prime minister or his cabinet.
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New Referendum NOW.
End this Brexit Madness once and for all.
YES to the EU, Schengen, the Euro and an EU Military independent of the USA.
Break free of the Washington Yoke! -
What gives Starmer the right to change things democratically voted on without going back to the general public ,this is a classic tail wagging the dog the dog needs kicking out along with its kennel
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Because the British public were lied to. Not only that, it was supposed to be advisory, not implemented, especially as the majority ratio was too low.
Perhaps, now or in a few months, I can reconnect with my lost Continental customers.-
Your being lied to now. This is undemocratic. Like the digital i.ds, facial recognition and the end of jurys.
Are you so blind to see you’re walking into a dictatorship?
Blinded by party politics.-
I think you are the blind one who was lied to. How anyone with a modicum of intelligence and critical thinking can think Brexit was a good idea in the first place belies reason. To persist in believing the lies still is pure idiocy and shows a distinct lack of understanding about how Brexit came about and the effects on the country since. For your education I suggest the trilogy by Russell Jones, starting with The Decade in Tory, then progress to How They Broke Britain by James O’Brien. Should be mandatory reading for anyone who voted for Brexit and all those who think the Tories/Reform are the answer. PS I don’t vote Labour as they are not progressive enough.
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Starmer, head of the democratically elected government, is preparing a bill, which will then be democratically voted on. Which part of that didn’t you understand?
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Because that is how a democracy works, what many leavers forget is that there was a referendum in 197 of which remain won, working on your theory there shouldn’t have been on in 2016. Another lie paddled is that the UK only joined a trading platform, this is incorrect
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That’s not quite correct.. the vote in the 1970’s was to a common market, not what it has transpired into today… the country never had a vote/choice on that… if we are to have another vote it’s needs to be clear what we are voting on … without people being misled with the wrong information .. that’s what’s caused the trouble from the Brexit vote…
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All the vote involved was whether we should leave the European Union.
There was no question about leaving the Single Market, Customs Union etc.It’s absolutely Labour’s right to improve Brexit without consulting the people. However, rejoining without a bite or calling a referendum now would be ethically wrong because their 2024 manifesto explicitly promised not to do so.
To keep the awful deal as it is would be the worst leadership in history since Johnson, Truss and Sunak.
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About time !!! All the lies about Brexit have come home and bit us in the arse . Knowing what Cameron said about Johnson never believing in Brexit and didn’t think Brexit would win , but backed it for his own personal gain , is absolutely shocking and he should be locked up for it ! Knowing voting for something he knew would do harm to our country, but went ahead with it for his own personal career. And as for those who shouted “ They need us more than we need them “ where are those voices now !? If I was the prime minister I’d call for a mother referendum, knowing now we can’t trust the USA and our closest allies are in Europe. And also Russian interference in Brexit , it’s a no brainer
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Wrong. Liz Truss was the worst PM. While I’m not a Labour fan, we’ve had some shocking ones and they got worse straight after the Brexit vote. Have a word with yourself. Brexit has not been good for the UK at all.
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Brexit was the answer to a problem that leave told you existed .
It’s up there with Santa & the cheques in the mail as most believed lie
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