Ed Davey on EU trade deal: ‘My fear is that Starmer stops here’
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Ed Davey tells The News Agents of his concerns that the UK’s new trade deal with the EU will be seen as the end of a process, rather than the first step to rebuilding trust lost since Brexit.
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In brief…
- Ed Davey says the Lib Dems welcome Labour’s new trade deal with the EU, but shares his concerns that the government will see it as the end of a process, when he considers it ‘the first step’.
- Davey says rebuilding EU trust in the UK is key to repairing the ‘huge damage’ done by Brexit, and says the UK public must be informed and supportive.
- He has also dismissed claims from former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg that the party must enter another coalition if it wants any real chance of taking power.
What’s the story?
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has welcomed the Labour government's new trade deal with the EU – but says this must be seen as the first step to repairing the lasting impacts of Brexit.
He has told The News Agents of his concerns that Labour will see the deal as the end of the process.
"We welcome what he's done – we need to rebuild that trust," Davey told Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel.
"But this is a very initial first step, it's a toe in the water.
"My fear is that Starmer is going to stop there."
Davey says it begins to repair the "huge damage" done by Brexit under Boris Johnson's leadership.
He says the UK's new deal with the EU on trade is bigger than either made recently with India and the US – which would likely not have been possible before Brexit, due to rules about members making independent trade deals.
But he believes the UK could have secured a "much better" deal with India, and that reduced tariffs on UK products entering the US still leaves Great Britain in a worse place than it was at the start of the year, before they were imposed by Donald Trump.
"We've got to rebuild the relationship with Europe," Davey says.
"It's really clear that trust was lost, and so you can't do things in one big leap.
"Moreover, you've got to take the British people with us. I think a customs union is the first big step that would make a massive difference to our industry, really boost growth and wealth creation."
Would Ed Davey consider a Lib Dem coalition government?
Davey wants to ‘restore trust’ in UK’s immigration system
Davey believes the UK would be in a stronger place to negotiate trade deals with Donald Trump from inside the EU, as this could make us "much stronger" by showing the president of the US we have alternative trade partners.
Additionally, he says the UK would be even stronger with a youth mobility scheme with the EU, similar to the one it has with Canada, Australia and Japan. The Labour party is currently considering a youth mobility scheme that would allow Europeans aged 18-30 to live, work and study in the UK as part of an EU reset deal.
This, he believes, could result in a first step to restoring the confidence of the British people in the country's immigration system, which he describes as "shot to pieces" due to the huge numbers that entered the country after the Brexit deal under the previous Tory government.
Will the Lib Dems enter another coalition government?
The Lib Dem leader spoke to The News Agents on the same day former leader Nick Clegg – who Davey admits he hasn't spoken to since late 2024 – says the party must be prepared to enter a new coalition if it wants any realistic chance of coming into power.
Clegg was the leader of the Lib Dems when it entered into a coalition with David Camerons's Conservatives in 2010. In the 2024 general election, the Lib Dems won 71 seats – its biggest success since 1923.
Davey says his only goal is to continue seeing "more Liberal Democrats elected".
"We go into every election wanting to win, and we will go into the next general election wanting to win," he says.
"I'm really proud of what we achieved in that five year period when we were in government, and I'm really shocked by how badly the country has been governed by the Tories alone since 2015.
"Whether it's energy, whether it's the economy, whether it's our relation to Europe, whether it's tax policy – the Conservatives have a lamentable record, and no wonder they are floundering."
What’s next for Davey and the Lib Dems?
A recent YouGov poll showed the Tory Party, under Kemi Badenoch's leadership, was now the fourth most-popular political party in the UK, behind Reform UK, Labour, and Ed Davey's Lib Dems.
"I think we're taking people who used to vote Conservative, lifelong Conservatives, in middle England," Davey says.
"I think we are now the party of middle England, and I think we appeal to people who are currently thinking about voting Labour, Reform or Green.
"I think when they look at what's on offer from the Liberal Democrats, we'll win them over too."
Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.
