SPAIN’S Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has discussed the possibility of thrashing out a bilateral youth mobility deal with the UK after a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer, according to reports in The Sunday Telegraph.
The idea was suggested by Sanchez at a meeting of European leaders on July 18 at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace and ancestral home of Winston Churchill.
The deal would allow young Spanish people to live and work in the UK, with Brits aged between 18 and 30 able to head to Spain without current post-Brexit visa restrictions.
Sir Keir Starmer, who became Prime Minister after his Labour Party secured a massive majority earlier this month, is understood not to have rejected Sanchez’s proposal, along with other points discussed during a private meeting.
In April, prior to the general election, Starmer rejected the idea of an EU-wide youth mobility deal floated by officials in Brussels amid fears such a move would increase net migration figures.
However, Labour’s manifesto promised to forge closer ties with the European Union, although it stopped short of promising a return to freedom of movement, or rejoining the customs union.
The UK currently has youth mobility schemes with Australia, New Zealand and Canada which allow young people to study or work in the UK for up to two years.
James Cleverly, a former foreign secretary who is running to become the new Conservative Party leader, labelled the proposals as a ‘betrayal’ and a ‘u-turn’.
A government spokesman sought to play down the idea, saying: “We have been clear that we won’t rejoin the single market, customs union or reintroduce freedom of movement, and we are not considering a youth mobility scheme”.
Alongside discussions around a youth mobility scheme, Sanchez and Starmer will hope to secure a post-Brexit treaty surrounding the future of Gibraltar, the tiny British Overseas Territory located on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsular.
Spanish authorities have previously threatened to impose a hard Schengen border on the frontier between Spain and Gibraltar after post-Brexit treaty talks stalled.
