Real reason why Keir Starmer committed his most brazen act of Brexit betrayal yet

It has been several years in the making but Sir Keir Starmer finally got his wish this week as he frogmarched Britain into a miserable new era of meddling Brussels rule. With a stroke of a pen, the Labour leader ensured a return to European Union regulations and interference which many hoped had been consigned to the dustbin of history.

The grinning Prime Minister proclaimed his new reset deal a "win win" as he stood alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during this week's UK-EU Summit.

The Daily Express should have been there inside London's historic Lancaster House to witness what critics have described as Sir Keir's Brexit "surrender".

But we were denied entry, refused accreditation due to "limited capacity" for an event that was attended by scores of media outlets from across the UK and the continent.

Quelle surprise!

It is somewhat ironic that the newspaper which led the victorious campaign to get Britain out of the EU - led by the late political journalist and politician Patrick O'Flynn, who died on Tuesday - was not given the opportunity to scrutinise the Prime Minister.

There will be other opportunities.

This was the first of what will become an annual event and shows that Sir Keir has no plans in stopping.

On Monday the Labour leader, who backed Remain then campaigned for a second referendum to undo the Leave vote, agreed to restart payments to the EU budget which could run into hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

And, to the fury of Britain's beleaguered fishermen, he caved in to French demands to allow access for EU trawlers until at least 2038 - more than 20 years after the public voted to take back control.

The agreement also paves the way for a "youth mobility deal" which could potentially grant 80 million young Europeans the right to live and work temporarily in the UK.

Unsurprisingly, Sir Keir's reset deal was met with a furious backlash.

Critics said he had been "stitched up like a kipper" by Europe as his "sell-out" for smoother trade will crush the UK fishing industry, drive up immigration and cost taxpayers millions.

Nigel Farage said the "Brexit betrayal" sticks two-fingers up to the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the EU in 2016.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the deal takes Britain back to the past as a "rule-taker" from Brussels.

While former PM Boris Johnson, who was one of the main architects of the Vote Leave campaign, was typically colourful in his criticism, lambasting Sir Keir as the "orange ball-chewing manacled gimp of Brussels".

Sir Keir Starmer said the reduction in trade barriers would boost the UK economy by £9 billion a year by 2040.

The PM claimed it would result in "lower food prices at the checkout" by making trade with the EU cheaper and easier.

And he said an agreement on the use of passport e-gates could ease queues for British travellers, although it was not clear when that might start.

Ms von der Leyen said the deal provided a "road map" for even closer relations between Britain and the EU in future.

For their part, both Mrs Badenoch and the Reform UK leader both pledged to scrap the deal if they win power at the next election.

But in a mechanism branded the "Reform clause", the new deal with the EU would allow Brussels to impose swingeing tariffs on British exports if the fishing agreement is torn up early by a new government.

There are five key elements to the deal - fishing, trade, youth mobility, defence and food standards. Sir Keir has handed European fishing vessels another 12 years of access to British waters on the same terms they enjoy now.

This is arguably the most controversial part and sparked the biggest cries of betrayal.

Under a deal struck by Mr Johnson in 2021, Britain will have seized back 25% of catching rights in its waters that were surrendered to EU trawlers before the 2016 Brexit vote.

Britain's fishing industry had hoped this transfer of power would continue when the deal ends in June 2026 - or that the UK would seize back control over 100% of its waters.

But Sir Keir has agreed that the EU can keep 75% of its pre-Brexit catch until 2038, rather than continue to gradually take back control of UK waters following Brexit.

UK negotiators apparently caved in after the EU put 11th-hour demands on the table on Sunday.

They played hardball by warning Sir Keir that he would only secure his key demand that trading barriers are relaxed with the bloc indefinitely if he agreed to current fishing rights being extended.

After last-minute wrangling, both sides agreed on 12 years.

The scale of the deal blindsided UK fishing organisations because ministers had previously indicated they were only prepared to allow an extension of no more than four years.

However, the ban on exporting certain shellfish to the Continent - such as clams, mussels and oysters - has been lifted.

Sir Keir insisted the deal was "good for fishing" because it would provide stability. But the Scottish Fishermen's Federation branded it "a horror show" while Mr Farage said it would be "the end of the fishing industry".

Meanwhile, thousands more adults aged under 30 from more than two dozen EU countries could pour into the UK under the "youth experience scheme".

It would give young people from the EU the right to work, live and study in the UK and vice versa.

The numbers allowed to come would be capped, with a time limit on how long they can stay. But there was no detail about this and it is still to be negotiated in further talks.

Brexiteers have argued that it signals a return to "freedom of movement by the back door".

Britain has also agreed to enter talks about potentially re-joining the EU's Erasmus programme at a cost of millions of pounds.

The Prime Minister also agreed to follow EU food standards and farming rules forever in return for red tape being slashed when exporting animal and plant products to the bloc - which ministers say will cut prices in supermarkets.

The deal tears up most of the EU food and farming checks imposed after Brexit, meaning chilled meat products such as sausages and burgers can be exported to the Continent again.

British checks on EU food will also be reduced in a move No10 claimed would "make food cheaper".

Controversially, this will include adopting new EU laws in the sector in future.

This so-called "dynamic alignment" will make the UK a "rule-taker", Brexiteers claim, undermining one of the key principles of Brexit that the UK should set its own laws.

For instance, it could prevent Britain from forging ahead with plans to allow the planting of gene-edited crops, a sector which could have generated billions of pounds.

The deal means the UK will have a say in the rules being made, but it is yet to be explained how this will work.

It also means Britain will have to accept rulings by the European Court of Justice when it comes to disputes.

Sir Keir's deal opens the door for UK defence firms to access a £125billion EU fund designed to help the bloc's countries re-arm in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

British defence firms such as BAE Systems and Babcock have been locked out of it.

Talks will be taken forward about how the UK can access the fund - including making a financial contribution, which could reach into the hundreds of millions of pounds.

The fund allows EU states to take out loans for weapons from funds raised against the EU budget.

Some fear the Defence and Security Partnership could mean British servicemen taking part in EU civilian and military operations, which Brexiteers argue is potentially a slippery slope towards the UK becoming involved in an "EU Army".

While May 19, 2025 might be the day that Sir Keir embarked on his most brazen act of Brexit betrayal yet, many fear that it is just beginning.

Since he entered Downing Street last July the Labour leader has systematically worked his way through an ever growing list of ways to hitch Britain to the European bandwagon once again.

This will continue in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Sir Keir claims he wants Brexit to work in the UK's interest. But the reality is that he's trying to unpick as much of it as he can, stitch by stitch.

With Reform UK breathing down the necks of both the Tories and Labour, the Prime Minister's masterplan to re-enter the EU's orbit is doomed to failure if immigration numbers, both legal and illegal, don't fall rapidly over the next few years and the economy suffers.

When Sir Keir made his grand announcement next to the Union Jack and EU flag on Monday it was a stark reminder of what he craves but what so many people rejected on another historical and memorable date, 23 June 2016, when Britain decided to quit the EU.