Labour signs off youth mobility scheme for 80 000 young people a year

Ministers have signed off a youth mobility scheme that would admit 80,000 young people a year, according to the Daily Mail, ahead of an EU summit intended to seal the deal alongside eased trading restrictions. The same weekend, former chancellor Rachel Reeves used her first major intervention since leaving the Treasury to declare that Britain's future lies in the European Union.

Reeves was sacked by Andy Burnham when he took office, and her Sunday Times article lands while the prime minister has instructed his cabinet not to advocate for specific options or opine on likely outcomes. "No one in the Treasury ever doubted where my instincts were," she wrote, welcoming the leadership of the man who dismissed her and adding that Brexit has made Britain "poorer, weaker and less secure."

Burnham's own position is a two-stage construction. Stage one, due to be sealed at this month's summit, covers food and drink, emissions trading and the youth mobility scheme — all, he insists, within the scope of Labour's 2024 manifesto. That manifesto committed the party to remaining outside the customs union and the single market, and to not reinstating freedom of movement. The signed-off scheme would admit 80,000 young people a year: free movement, for one age bracket, under another name.

Stage two — anything more substantial — is explicitly deferred until after the next election. Burnham has said rejoining the single market would require no referendum if it appeared in a manifesto, while full EU membership would need another in-out vote. Home secretary Shabana Mahmood is reported to have concerns about what a revised deal would mean for migration.

The case for the scheme rests on labour shortages. New data shows young foreign nationals already in Britain are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as their UK counterparts.

Reeves conceded that supporters of re-entry must "make the argument, demonstrate tangible benefits and to get the next steps right." Burnham insists any fundamental change to post-Brexit arrangements is "for the public to decide."

The youth mobility scheme is due to be sealed at the summit later this month. The public's say on anything beyond it is scheduled for after the next election.