Andy Burnham is being urged to drop Labour’s “obsolete” Brexit red lines by a key EU figure who argues it would allow a much deeper agreement with the bloc, such as the associate membership deal offered to Canada.
The Prime Minister is struggling to make progress in the Brexit reset started under his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer.
EU sources told The i Paper this week his demands for the UK to be included in Brussels’ protectionist Made In Europe laws, which would favour European manufacturers for public procurement, are all but impossible this year.
But after Burnham refused to rule out committing to rejoin the EU at the next election, the European Parliament’s Brexit chief urged him to drop Labour’s self-imposed negotiating restrictions to secure a much bigger deal with Brussels.
Two pilots injured in RAF jet crash in Wales
A Royal Air Force jet has crashed in Wales in the Pencarnisiog area of Anglesey shortly after taking off this afternoon.
Everything we know
The force said helicopters from the Coastguard and the Wales Air Ambulance were deployed to the scene and the pilots, who ejected from the jet, are being treated for minor injuries.
“We watched it climb, then as it was parallel with us it started to pitch up violently twice… then both pilots ejected, and the Hawk crashed about a mile away,” a witness told North Wales Live.
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Investigation launched
The RAF has launched an investigation into the crash.
- An RAF spokesperson said: “An incident involving an RAF T2 Hawk aircraft, flying out of RAF Valley, occurred near Anglesey. An investigation is underway and we will not comment further at this time.”
AI offers poor financial advice ‘majority of the time’ – what to know
Major AI chatbots provide inaccurate financial advice in 57 percent of cases, new research has found.
This rose to 88 per cent when they were asked harder questions.
One answer would have cost £17,500
Tech research firm Saturn used a paraplanner to run 121 money-related questions through 18 chatbots. One of the answers would have cost them £17,500.
- Amal Jolly, Saturn’s chief executive, said: “The low quality of financial advice from mainstream AI models risks leading to widespread consumer harm.”
Why customers get less protection with AI advice
Human financial advisers must charge for their services, making it a regulated product that has to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. If they provided misleading advice, customers could get compensation.
There are no such protections for those who get information from a chatbot.
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The pinch points of the UK’s Chagos Islands deal
Defence secretary Wes Streeting has confirmed the UK is reviewing its deal to hand over the Chagos islands, home to the critical Diego Garcia base, to Mauritius after Donald Trump called it “terrible” at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
UK wants US support
We have to [review the deal] because the United States doesn’t support it […] We have to do more work with our American allies, with President Trump and his administration, to get the deal to a place where he can support it.
UK Defence secretary Wes Streeting
The original deal
Mauritius argues it was illegally forced to give away the islands in 1965 to gain independence.
A deal was agreed in 2025 where the UK would cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius.
It would then pay an average of £101m per year to lease back a joint US-UK military base there.
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US opposition
Opposition from Trump caused Starmer to pause the deal indefinitely in April.
- Trump had been a frequent critic, branding the deal as “a blight on our great ally” and an “act of total weakness”.
High costs
Starmer agreed to lease back the Diego Garcia base for 99 years, with official figures giving the total cost as £3.4bn.
However, opponents said the real cost could come to £35bn when adjusted for inflation.
Worries the deal could endanger the security of Diego Garcia
With sovereignty lying with Mauritius once the deal was done, critics argued that the country could impose restrictions on the joint UK-US military base.
- There were also worries that the move could embolden China to establish a presence in the archipelago.
Over 450,000 people projected to die from super El Niño
This year’s El Niño is estimated to cause 451,000 deaths due to the additional heat it will bring over the next six months, climate scientists have predicted.
What is El Niño?
El Niño is part of a natural cycle, called the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, and forms when warmer waters spread across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. Brazil, India, Nigeria and Indonesia are some of the countries expected to worst affected.
The World Meteorological Organisation said there was an “exceptionally high likelihood of nearly 100 per cent” that this El Niño will last until February 2027.
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Experts say what it means for the UK
Professor Ilan Kelman of UCL’s department of risk and disaster reduction said that El Niño could bring wetter and milder weather to the UK through the autumn and winter.
“There’s nothing definite, but in general we would expect a milder, wetter, and stormier autumn, a colder winter, and then a possibility of a hotter summer next year,” he added.
- The more severe impact of El Niño on other countries could also have a knock-on effect on the economy and daily life in the UK.
- Kelman said that the weather event could lead to more plane turbulence, flooding and impacts to electronic supply chains and imported food.
- Rice, sugar or coffee imports could be affected by potential flooding in South America.
- The shift of rainfall brought on by El Niño can also cause severe droughts in South East Asia and Australia.
Watch more from The i Paper
Why HRT patches are safer than pills
Oral hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) causes a slightly higher rate of blood clots – but there was no such risk from therapies applied to the skin.
The context
Why women use HRT
HRT is used by women going through menopause or for several years afterwards to stop hot flushes and reduce osteoporosis – where bones become weaker.
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The new research
Previous studies found HRT may cause a slightly higher rate of blood clots, heart attacks and breast cancer.
- A Danish study found women had a 60 per cent higher risk of blood clots from oral HRT, and a 20 to 30 per cent higher risk of strokes or heart attacks.
- But the total risk of blood clots was still very low, about one extra blood clot per thousand women per year.
- There was no blood clot risk seen with patches, gels or spray forms of HRT.
- But there was a higher rate of heart attacks with skin-based HRT if it is “cyclic”, alternating between oestrogen and oestrogen and progestogen.
Why might patches be safer?
Oral HRT is transported by blood vessels connecting the gut to the liver. There, it seems to increase levels of certain liver proteins involved in blood clotting.
When HRT is applied through patches or gels, the hormones are absorbed straight into the blood and don’t reach the liver at such high levels.
The NHS says the benefits of HRT usually outweigh the downsides, and that the risks of serious side effects are very low.
HRT is especially helping for combatting osteoporosis in women experiencing early menopause, before the age 45.
How the licence fee could be scrapped for a new monthly charge
The licence fee could be axed and replaced by an £11-a-month internet levy – and viewers invited to become “BBC members” – under new proposals.
The licence fee is becoming increasingly unsustainable, with 3.7 million households claiming to not need one, while half a million households stopped paying last year, forcing the BBC to find £500m in cuts.
‘Home internet levy’ fairest solution
A “home internet levy” method of funding is most likely to command public consent, the report, commissioned by campaign organisation 38 Degrees, found.
A BBC internet levy would cost £11 per month, an average increase of 35 per cent on the current cost of internet bills, but would be £4 a month cheaper than the current licence fee.
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The other proposals for the BBC
The report looked at other funding solutions such as keeping the licence fee, but adding a “news and culture levy” of £2.30 on to internet bills.
Also proposed was a £12 a month “household levy” or putting the cost of the licence fee on to streaming subscriptions.
Make BBC a ‘mutual’ society
- The report also proposed radical changes to make the BBC more accountable to the public by becoming a “mutual-style membership” organisation.
- Members would be chosen by lottery to take part in a member council, where they would serve terms of up to three years and be paid for their time.
- They would “hold the board of the BBC to account, ensuring that the organisation is meeting its duties to the public”.
- Under the proposals, the council would have no control over editorial decisions, hiring talent or decisions on programming.
The four key moments from Burnham’s meeting with Trump
There was no shortage of trip-wires that could have derailed Andy Burnham’s first meeting with Donald Trump, but in the end, it produced remarkably little friction.
Even without the charm offensive, Trump liked Burnham better than Starmer
In July, when Trump met Sir Keir Starmer at the Nato summit in Turkey after he had announced his resignation, the US President said he wanted to “bring him back” and “make him great again”.
Two months on, that affection has evaporated. Asked about a special relationship that has been up and down, Trump said things were “more up than they were under your last prime minister”.
No Trump attack on UK migration policy
Trump has previously said Britain is “on the edge of disaster” because of “insane” immigration policies, but in New York, he called it “a worldwide situation”.
For a Labour Prime Minister under pressure on small boats, being spared a public rebuke on his first outing is significant.
Trump thinks Britain has ‘tremendous potential’
Trump has previously called the UK “essentially bankrupt” for refusing to fully exploit North Sea oil and for relying on green energy. He has also claimed the country is “dying” under alleged mass migration.
This time he said Britain had “tremendous potential” and compared it favourably with other countries whose leaders he meets but in which he sees little promise.
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Burnham swerved a Trump rebuke over West Bank
- Many expected Washington to condemn Britain’s sanctions on illegal West Bank settlements.
- When asked directly, Trump did not engage. He said he did not know about the move and left the question for Burnham to answer.
- It was an odd moment, but a useful one for No 10. A US president who wanted to punish Britain had an open invitation to do so and passed it up.
Vapes and prescription medicine now used to spike victims
Drug-laced vapes, as well as prescription and over-the-counter medications, are increasingly being used to spike victims, police have said.
Various drugs used in vapes
Cases have emerged where officers have encountered vapes containing THC, the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis, and the synthetic drug spice, alongside the use of high doses of common medications such as antihistamines and travel-sickness tablets.
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Victims targeted in private settings
We’re seeing offenders use a wider range of substances than ever before, including everyday medications and substances added to vapes, while increasingly targeting victims in private settings such as homes, parties and student accommodation
Metropolitan police spiking lead Detective Superintendent Dan Thompson
How widespread is the issue?
- Over the past year, more than 2,700 spiking-related offences were reported to the Met, but only 131 resulted in a charge, caution or summons.
- This marked a 20 per cent increase over the previous year.
- More than half the victims were aged 18 to 35.
- A YouGov poll from December 2022 found that 10 per cent of women and 5 per cent of men said they had had a drink spiked.
Those restrictions – in Labour’s 2024 manifesto – are no return to the single market, customs union or free movement, which is the right to live, work and study across the EU.
PM should ‘think out of the box’
Burnham has been lobbying hard for the UK to be included in the Made in Europe laws, but Sandro Gozi, an ally of Emmanuel Macron, told The i Paper that the global forces driving UK industry panic about being left out should push the PM and the EU to “think out of the box” on how to deepen ties.
Canada, which has suffered an economic schism with Donald Trump’s US over trade and tariffs, was offered associate EU membership last week, prompting Gozi to tell The i Paper on Wedneday: “I hope that Burnham will want to move along that way [like Canada].
“In my view, the red lines are partially obsolete already. And I think that we hope that Burnham will want to move beyond [them].
“Not now – I understand that now he has to assess the state of the relationship. He wants also to solve some issues such as the issue of Made in Europe.
“But in perspective, I think that we should all think out of the box, and I think that this could be also one thing, one issue to think [about]: whether we are ready to move on beyond the red lines.
“We are in the EU. It is up to the UK.”
Dropping Labour’s red lines would “absolutely” open up associate membership or “something new” to the UK, according to Gozi, who is co-chair of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly.
It could combine existing deals, such as on security and defence, the coalition of the willing on Ukraine, and the Brexit trade deal, along with the new Brexit reset agreements currently being negotiated by the two sides on food and drink trade, youth mobility and electricity cooperation, alongside an “association agreement”, he added.
“What is happening globally should push us to think out of the box,” Gozi said.
Made in Europe deadlock
It came after Burnham and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York, and signalled the possibility of future deals on Ukraine, migration, artificial intelligence (AI) and security.
The i Paper understands the pair also discussed the Made In Europe deadlock that is threatening to derail the Brexit reset completely, although there were no major negotiating breakthroughs.
The meeting was nevertheless described as “very warm” while negotiators were said to be speeding up work towards a UK-EU summit in late November to tie up long-awaited deals on food trade, youth mobility – allowing 18-30 year-olds to work and study in the EU, and electricity cooperation.
However, EU sources made clear that UK calls for the summit to include a deal on Made In Europe would be rebuffed, with anything more than a political fudge practically impossible.
Burnham raised concerns about Made In Europe policies damaging UK industry, saying Britain should be treated as a “trusted partner” of the EU and shielded from protectionist laws, amid particular concerns about impact on the car industry, as he travelled to the UN this week.
But the EU is understood to be angered by suggestions that it should make a concession in this area in return for the UK agreeing to Brussels’ demands to lower university fees for European students in the youth mobility deal.
France ‘not against the UK’
The EU is understood to believe a deal on Made in Europe is impossible before next year because its own member states, some of which support Burnham’s position, need to work out their own compromise and finalise the policy and how it affects the UK first.
“It’s very difficult if you wanted to get a concession to have that as part of a summit that takes place before we even have a policy in place,” an EU source said.
“The transactional approach [in UK briefings], if you want to get all EU 27 member states to agree, I wonder if it’s the best way.”
Gozi also hit out at the suggestion concessions on youth mobility could be traded for Made In Europe access by the UK.
“I don’t think they can be put at the same level,” he said.
“If I was a negotiator on the other side of the Channel [in the UK], I wouldn’t bet on that.”
He also rejected suggestions Macron and France were the biggest obstacle to the UK on Made In Europe.
“The French position is not against the UK,” he said.
“The French position is we want a Made in Europe, an effective Made in Europe, a real Made in Europe. We want the European preference to really work. Then, if this can be combined with compromise with key partners such as UK, but also other partners which are strongly linked to the EU with trade agreements, very good.”
Youth mobility sticking point
EU sources also insist the next reset summit must simply be about getting existing negotiations finalised on food trade, electricity, and youth mobility – including a cut in tuition fees for EU students – done.
It puts the UK under pressure as the EU continues to try and force an agreement on youth mobility, which is politically controversial in Britain due to concerns over migration, without offering more concrete commitments on trade.
The most Burnham can get would be something like a non-binding political declaration, for example, to consider the UK’s position in Made in Europe.
One EU member state source said: “it will have to be a political decision. It will be messy and not a pretty compromise but I’m sure we’ll get there.”
Anand Menon, director of the UK In A Changing Europe think-tank said: “The reset is in trouble I fear. There are still real differences over youth mobility to be resolved.
“Made in Europe is potentially far more damaging than the putative gains from, say, an SPS [food trade] deal. And politically problematic too given Burnham’s promises on reindustrialisation,” he said.
“The EU thinks SPS is a big concession. We haven’t implemented full checks on their [food] exports to us, and proportionally we matter less to them than they do to us.”
The UK Government is understood to be reluctant to provide a running commentary on EU negotiations.