Eurocrats make more demands ahead of Starmer's 'surrender summit'

Eurocrats ambushed Keir Starmer with 11th-hour demands yesterday ahead of a so-called Brexit 'surrender summit' next week.

Officials in Brussels believe the Prime Minister has surrendered more than he needed to in talks – but the bloc is still asking for more.

One EU source said Brussels negotiators had been willing to 'play ball' if Sir Keir had asked for a looser trading relationship, known as 'mutual recognition'.

But the PM has instead promised to shackle Britain much closer to the EU's rulebook on food standards by 'dynamically aligning' with Brussels, potentially hampering the ability to do further or deeper trade deals with other countries such as the US.

The source said: 'The [European] Commission would have probably played ball on much less alignment than Starmer has ultimately accepted.