EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK Debate
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Andrew Lewin
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EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK
Andrew Lewin Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Andrew Lewin (Welwyn Hatfield) (Lab)
It is good to see you in the Chair, Ms Butler, in the first week of a new term. I congratulate the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) on securing this debate.
Brexit has been an unmitigated failure: our economy is smaller, thousands of UK businesses have stopped exporting to the EU altogether and our position in the world has been diminished. I put on the record my thanks to the former Prime Minister and Chancellor for all the work that they did on a repair job in the first two years of this Government, but, in the brief time that I have today, I will focus on what comes next.
I am pleased to see the Minister in Westminster Hall today and I welcome him to his role. I will talk specifically today about the importance of a youth mobility deal, because a visa-based scheme for 18 to 30-year-olds to allow them to travel freely between the United Kingdom and the European Union is something I have advocated for since my first few weeks in this place, and publicly since April 2025. The Government are in active negotiations with the EU about a youth mobility scheme as we speak. The prospect of such a deal has proven popular with the public; every poll on the subject consistently shows that there is broad support for a youth mobility deal.
However, this is a moment to be courageous and ambitious, because we read in the media that there is a live debate about the number of people who will be subject to a youth mobility scheme—100,000, or slightly more than 100,000. In a context where net migration to the United Kingdom has fallen from a record high of over 800,000 to less than 200,000, I hope and believe that that should give Ministers the space and the confidence to agree an ambitious youth mobility deal.
This negotiation is also a test of our Government’s ability to secure an agreement. Lots of pro-Europeans engaging with this subject and watching this debate want to see our Government engage in something that meaningfully moves our relationship with Europe forward. Achieving a youth mobility deal can be a test of that.
I admire the Prime Minister’s courage in saying that he is going to walk towards difficult issues. With respect to the European Union and the opportunity for a youth mobility deal, I think that he and the Minister can walk towards an opportunity and I hope that they can secure it this year.