Farage says UK’s Brexit deal with EU can be improved – but struggles to say how
Nigel Farage has said the UK could be “friendly” with the EU but did not outline what kind of ties with the bloc his party would support, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Reform UK leader said that “industrial collaboration” with the EU will give the UK “less flexibility” to make a deal with the US.
His comments came in an interview on the Today programme after his party edged ahead of Labour to top a voting poll from YouGov for the first time.
Farage was asked why he did not see it as a good move for Labour to seek closer trading ties with the EU after pledging to do so in its manifesto.
“You can have negotiations, you can be friendly, you can do all those things. But if we start to tie ourselves to industrial collaboration, as appears was agreed last night, then we find ourselves with less flexibility in doing deals with countries like America,” he said.
Asked about polls showing that many Britons want closer ties with the EU, Farage said: “We voted to leave. That was very, very clear. We can be friendly, we can be co-operative.”
He was pressed to explain what that means in practice.
“Well, I think the deal that was negotiated by the Johnson government wasn’t a very good one. We can improve on that.”
But Farage suggested that he would not back a new deal involving closer links, even if it ruled out more fishing access to EU boats.
“I do not see that any steps … back towards a failing European Union makes sense in a world that is changing very, very quickly,” he said.
“What does being friendly mean? We’re not mates in a pub. Can you commit to something?”@Emmabarnett presses Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on what he would like to see in a relationship between the EU and UK post-Brexit.#R4Today
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 4, 2025
Key events
ONS finding it much harder to get people to fill in surveys for official data since pandemic, MPs told
The Office for National Statistics is finding it harder to gather data because people are less willing to respond to surveys, MPs have been told.
Sir Ian Diamond, who as national statistician is in charge of the ONS, said that it now takes twice as long to get people to reply to surveys as it did before the pandemic.
Giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee, he said:
We’re finding very, very, very high levels of flat refusal compared with pre-pandemic.
He also accepted that the ONS was having problems with the reliability of its labour force data.
Having shorter survey forms could help, Diamond said. He told MPs that the ONS was following the example of its Australian and US counterparts, who are using shorter forms, and he said he wanted “people to be able to, for example, fill in the questionnaire on the bus on the way home on their mobile phone, if that is the best way for them to be able to support us”.
He went on:
We’ve worked with them [Australia and the US] to look at exactly what they’re doing and indeed that has led to us shortening our draft online questionnaire to now six minutes per person.
Asked if the ONS needed “more cash and better data linkage” within government, Sir Diamond replied: “Yes.”
Carla Denyer, the Green party co-leader, asks Miliband if he agrees that any airport expansion will not allow the UK to meet its carbon targets. She says the carbon savings in the clean power action plan will be “wiped out” if Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton expansion go ahead. And she says it is unrealistic to expect sustainable aviation fuels to address the problem, because that would require the use of half the UK’s agricultural land to produce the fuel.
Miliband says any airport expansion would have to take place “within carbon budget and within environmental limits”.
He goes on to claim the government had done more to promote clean energy in six months than the Tories did in 14 years.
Miliband sidesteps question about whether government views Rosebank as existing oilfield licence application, or new one
As the Guardian reports this morning, Keir Starmer is facing a growing internal backlash over the potential approval of the Rosebank oilfield, after Treasury sources indicated Rachel Reeves was likely to give it her backing.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, is taking questions in the Commons and the Tory MP Harriet Cross has just asked him if the government will treat Rosebank as an existing licence application when it reviews the case, or a new one.
The distinction is important because at the general election Labour said it would allow existing licences to continue, but that it would not approve new ones.
Cross did not get very clear answer. Miliband replied:
This is an individual planning case, and I’m going to be careful what I say.
What I would say is that the last government made an unlawful decision. According to the court, we are going to follow due process.
Starmer to hold talks with Danish PM in Downing Street tonight
Keir Starmer will host his Danish counterpart for a working dinner in Downing Street tonight, PA Media reports. PA says:
The prime minister and Denmark’s premier Mette Frederiksen are expected to discuss European security as well as the issue of migration at the meeting.
The dinner comes amid a diplomatic row between Denmark and the US over Donald Trump’s claims that he wants to acquire Greenland.
Frederiksen has insisted the autonomous Danish territory is not for sale, but the US president has repeatedly expressed an interest in taking control of the island.
Downing Street would not be drawn over whether Britain would support the US or Denmark in a dispute over the territory when asked by journalists on Monday.
Frederiksen has called for a “collective and robust response” within the EU should the president press ahead with his threats to take over the territory.
Here is Jennifer Rankin’s report on Starmer’s dinner with EU leaders in Brussels last night.
Farage says UK’s Brexit deal with EU can be improved – but struggles to say how
Nigel Farage has said the UK could be “friendly” with the EU but did not outline what kind of ties with the bloc his party would support, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Reform UK leader said that “industrial collaboration” with the EU will give the UK “less flexibility” to make a deal with the US.
His comments came in an interview on the Today programme after his party edged ahead of Labour to top a voting poll from YouGov for the first time.
Farage was asked why he did not see it as a good move for Labour to seek closer trading ties with the EU after pledging to do so in its manifesto.
“You can have negotiations, you can be friendly, you can do all those things. But if we start to tie ourselves to industrial collaboration, as appears was agreed last night, then we find ourselves with less flexibility in doing deals with countries like America,” he said.
Asked about polls showing that many Britons want closer ties with the EU, Farage said: “We voted to leave. That was very, very clear. We can be friendly, we can be co-operative.”
He was pressed to explain what that means in practice.
“Well, I think the deal that was negotiated by the Johnson government wasn’t a very good one. We can improve on that.”
But Farage suggested that he would not back a new deal involving closer links, even if it ruled out more fishing access to EU boats.
“I do not see that any steps … back towards a failing European Union makes sense in a world that is changing very, very quickly,” he said.
“What does being friendly mean? We’re not mates in a pub. Can you commit to something?”@Emmabarnett presses Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on what he would like to see in a relationship between the EU and UK post-Brexit.#R4Today
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 4, 2025
Ex-Tory MP reportedly joins Ukraine foreign legion in non-combat role
Jack Lopresti, a former Conservative MP ousted in the 2024 election has reportedly joined the International Legion in Ukraine in a non-combat role to help the fight against Russia. Jamie Grierson has the story.
Richard Fuller, the shadow chief secretary, said the YouGov poll showing his party in third place behind Reform UK and Labour (see 9.30am) showed voters were “very frustrated”. He accepted his party had to restore trust.
Fuller told Sky News:
People are very frustrated. They were very frustrated with the Conservative party ahead of the election, that’s why the Conservative Party ended up with its worst result.
But the party was now under new leadership, he said.
Clearly, we’ve got to learn lessons. That’s what Kemi Badenoch has said and it takes time for us to restore trust with the British public.
But the public now has seen the new government. They’re very frustrated. They think that Rachel Reeves is out of her depth. They think that Keir Starmer is a bit all over the place.”
They’re very frustrated. They’re not yet ready to say ‘we can see the Conservatives under new leadership are setting a new direction’.
YouGov poll showing Reform UK ahead highlights ‘dire state’ of Tories, says Labour minister
The YouGov poll showing Reform UK in first place for the first time (see 9.30am) highlights the “dire state” of the Conservative party, a Labour minister said.
Asked about the poll in an interview with Times Radio, Karin Smyth, the care minister, said:
We had a very big poll seven months ago [the election that Labour won].
I’ve seen a lot of polls come and go. I think it particularly highlights the dire state of the Conservative party at the moment as well. It’s a volatile time in politics. We understand that.
Smyth accepted that Labour did look at polls, but she said “we’re very much focused on what we’re trying to do at the moment”.
Labour dropped plan to ban foreign donors after Waheed Alli intervened, book claims
Labour reportedly dropped a plan to ban foreign political donations after an intervention from Waheed Alli, the Labour peer who paid for Keir Starmer’s clothes and glasses. Jessica Elgot has the story.
Thomas-Symonds says UK and EU to review Brexit deal in spirit of ‘ruthless pragmatism’ ahead of summit in May
Thomas-Symonds says Keir Starmer showed his commitment to working with the EU on security during his visit to Brussels yesterday.
On law enforcement, he says the UK wants more cooperation on tackling small boats and people smuggling.
And, on trade, he confirms that the UK wants a new sanitary and phytosanitary agreement (covering food safety rules), progress on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and more cooperation on energy and the green transition.
And he says Keir Starmer plans to meet Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, at a summit in May to resolve these issues.
He ends by again proposing “ruthless pragmatism”.
The time for ideologically driven division is over. The time for ruthless pragmatism is now. It is through a new partnership between the UK and the EU that we will deliver for the people of the United Kingdom and for people across the continent.
As Politco reports, the UK-EU summit is expected to be held in Britain. Last night António Costa, president of the European Council, suggested it would by on 19 May.
Thomas-Symonds says the UK government sees “real opportunities to improve the status quo” in the reset happening this year as the UK and the EU revise how their post-Brexit trade deal is working.
He says he intends to be a “ruthlessly pragmatic negotiator”.
And he says there will be three pillars to the UK’s reset with the EU.
This British government was elected on a mandate to strengthen national security by reconnecting with our allies, to increase people’s safety through strong borders, and to increase prosperity through growth.
Our European friends are a part of every single one of those priorities, and I believe it’s these priorities that form the three pillars of a reset in our relationship.
Allies like EU and UK ‘more secure together than they are apart’, says Nick Thomas-Symonds
Thomas-Symonds says the UK and the EU both know that “low growth is not the destiny of our economies”.
They are both committed to “research and innovation, reducing red tape, a new skills agenda, boosting productivity [and] a more resilient economy”, he says.
He goes on:
In a more uncertain world, we are regularly reminded that allies are more secure together than they are apart.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of post-Brexit relations with the EU, is speaking now at the at the UK-EU forum’s annual conference. There is a live feed here.
Thomas-Symonds says the UK and the Eu share the same “mutal goal”, wanting a better relationship.
He says Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, recently gave a speech saying the government has set growth as its main priority. And he says on the very same day Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, was setting out her competitiveness agenda.
Reform UK overtakes Labour for first time in YouGov opinion poll
Good morning. A good rule of thumb in political reporting is that any news story about voter intention polling is wrong. That is because news stories, by definition, are about what new and what’s different, and polls that show anything unusual (or at least anything significantly unusual) are probably outliers. In polling, what matters is the trend (because polls are a reliable guide to voting trends) but not so much the actual numbers (where polling is much more hit and miss).
So it it is with some reservation that we start with YouGov polling, for the Times and Sky News, showing Reform UK in first place, and ahead of Labour for the first time in a leading national opinion poll. It has Reform UK on 25%, Labour on 24% and the Conservatives on 21%.
As Anthony Wells, head of European political and social research at YouGov, told the Times, the Reform UK lead is well within the margin of error, and it would be more realistic to see Nigel Farage’s party level pegging with Labour. Wells said:
We’ve had Labour and Reform extremely close over all our polls so far this year and this survey shows a narrow Reform lead,” he said. “While it remains within the margins of error it reinforces the fact that Reform is roughly equal in support with Labour with Conservative slipping back again.
So why cover it prominently? Because, while the figures may not matter much, the trend does, and this is confirmation that support for Reform UK has been growing significantly since the general election. Here is a poll tracker from Electoral Calculus.
This does not mean Farage is in poll position to be the next PM. The next election is years away, Reform only has five MPs and its surge is miniscule compared to the SDP’s in the early 1980s. The SDP-Liberal Alliance hit 50% in the polls at one point, but it got crushed by first-past-the-post at the 1983 general election and ended up with just 23 MPs.
But politics has changed a lot in the last 40 years, and even if Reform’s prospects of overtaking the two main UK parties still look slim, these figures will alarm MPs from both the Conservatives and Labour.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.40am: Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, gives a speech at the UK-EU forum’s annual conference.
10am: The Today presenter Nick Robinson interviews Wes Streeting, the health secretary, for a world cancer day event.
10am: Education experts, including the National Education Union, give evidence to the Commons education committee about the children’s wellbeing and schools bill.
11am: Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, gives a speech on how Stormont has been operating.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
2.30pm: Sir Matthew Rycroft, permanent secretary at the Home Office, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.
2.30pm: Gareth Davies, head of the National Audit Office, gives his annual speech to parliament.
And in the evening Keir Starmer is having dinner in Downing Street with the Danish prime minister, Mette Fredriksen.
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UPDATE: The blog originally said this was the first time Reform UK has been ahead of Labour in a national opinon poll. I have changed the headline, and the wording in the second paragraph, because a colleague pointed out that Reform were ahead in a Find Out Now poll last week. Find Out Now is one of the newer polling companies, and is not as prominent in the market as companies like YouGov.
