Farage skips ‘Brexit reset’ debate for French holiday

To the Commons, where just after midday Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered a statement on his brand new UK-EU deal. Sir Keir told MPs that the new agreement would ‘strengthen our borders’ and ‘release us from the tired arguments of the past’ on Brexit. But as opposition politicians heckled – ‘tell that to the fishermen!’ one yelled – there was one notable absence in the Chamber. The Brexit kingpin himself, Reform UK’s very own Nigel Farage, was nowhere to be seen. How very strange…

One would think that this was a moment Farage would not want to miss – given Starmer’s deal has given rise to accusations that the Labour PM is ‘betraying’ Brexit less than a year into his premiership. Already, Sir Keir’s deal – which includes a controversial youth migrant scheme and makes concessions to the EU over fishing rights – has been torn apart by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who slammed it as a ‘stitch up’, with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey bemoaning the fact the deal didn’t go further and the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn calling Starmer’s EU market access claims ‘simply absurd’.