EU ambassador: Labour’s Brexit plan may mean alignment with bloc’s rules

LONDON — A deal the Labour Party wants to strike with the European Union to ease the impact of post-Brexit checks on food and agriculture products would “probably” require the U.K. to accept alignment with EU rules, the bloc’s ambassador in London said.

Speaking on Tuesday, Pedro Serrano said the EU was “favorable” to the idea of striking a phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the U.K., but warned there were certain “modalities” that would come with it.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has said he wants to negotiate such a deal with the EU to help smooth trade at the border following Britain’s exit from the single market.

But the opposition chief, who polls suggest is on course to lead the next government, has also said the U.K. “will not be a rule-taker” on issues of regulation.

“We’ve always been rather favorable to, or responded positively to the possibility of an SPS type of agreement, which we think may facilitate trade,” Serrano told an event hosted by the UK In a Changing Europe think tank.

“Of course, an SPS agreement entails modalities that, well, let’s see whether the U.K. is interested in those modalities or not — because it would entail, probably, dynamic alignment, and things of this sort.”

At the event, which was also attended by Serrano’s U.K. counterpart in Brussels, Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby, both sides downplayed the importance of a coming review of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the post-Brexit trade deal struck between the two sides in 2020.

Serrano said the review, scheduled for May 2026, would look at the agreement’s “implementation” and that the bloc was not necessarily “going to start negotiating things that we haven’t negotiated before.”

Asked about the review, Croisdale-Appleby, himself a former Brexit negotiator, said he thought it was “better to talk about what we want to do with the relationship” than focus on the review.

“You don’t want necessarily to wait to do anything that you thought was useful until you have a TCA review,” he added.

The head of the U.K. Mission to the EU said Brussels and Westminster had “aligned political cycles” and that after both elections would be “a sensible time to take stock” rather than waiting for the “technical exercise.”

Advocates of an SPS agreement with the EU say it could help limit barriers to trade by cutting the need for cumbersome paperwork and costly and disruptive veterinary and health checks on foods and animals moving across borders.

The EU has such an agreement with Switzerland, which generally stays aligned with EU SPS rules in relevant areas to reduce border frictions.

The bloc also has a less comprehensive deal with New Zealand, which does not require full regulatory alignment — but officials say the volume of business with the U.K. means this approach isn’t appropriate for cross-Channel trade, and that it would not do as much to facilitate it anyway.