🚨NEW REPORT🚨 This report, from the cross-party, cross-industry UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC) delivers 8 substantive recommendations for the UK Government, and our EU partners on how we can strengthen energy cooperation.

UK-EU ETS Report — UK Trade and Business Commission

This report, from the cross-party, cross-industry UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC) delivers 8 substantive recomm

tradeandbusiness.uk

Andrew Lewin MP has stepped down as Chair of the UKTBC after leading its work for the past 18 months, following his appointment as Parliamentary Private Secretary at the DBT. During his tenure, the UKTBC advanced key work on UK-EU relations, including reports on SPS alignment and youth mobility.

Andrew Lewin MP stands down as UKTBC Chair — UK Trade and Business Commission

Andrew Lewin MP has stepped down as Chair of the UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC) after leading its work for the

tradeandbusiness.uk

🚨 The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published updated guidance for British businesses to help them understand upcoming regulatory changes and prepare for a new UK-EU SPS deal. https://www.tradeandbusiness.uk/news/gov-publish-sps-guidance

UK Government publishes updated business guidance ahead of UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) deal — UK Trade and Business Commission

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published updated guidance for British businesses to

tradeandbusiness.uk

🚨 NEW REPORT 🚨 This report, from the cross-party, cross-industry UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC) delivers 5 substantive recommendations for the UK Government, and our EU partners on how we can make an SPS deal a reality.

The UK-EU SPS Agreement — UK Trade and Business Commission

This report, from the cross-party, cross-industry UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC) delivers 5 substantive recomm

tradeandbusiness.uk

UKTBC Chair Andrew Lewin MP: "I am a proud pro-European." "I would recommend you have a look at some of the polling that's out there, Best for Britain, on a youth mobility deal" "There is overwhelming public support. Around 65 to 70%. The British people recognise that our EU allies are important."

Chair of the UKTBC Andrew Lewin has written a timely update on UK-EU relations. "The Labour party need not limit our ambition to a Swiss deal, a customs partnership, or any pre-existing agreement. The mutual interests of the EU and the UK are changing too."

Andrew Lewin (@andrewlewinmp)

This essay was first published by the Fabian society as part of a collection of Labour Thinks Essays, I would encourage

substack.com

"For a prime minister desperately seeking economic growth, closer ties with the EU make sense." The UKTBC has long advocated for closer alignment between the UK and the EU on goods and services.

Can the UK rejoin the EU? Keir Starmer looks to undo Brexit damage

Ten years on from the vote to leave, the prime minister wants Britain to adopt single market rules to bring us into clos

thetimes.com

🚨 Speaking at a session of the UKTBC on geopolitics, defence and security, former Lammy advisor Ben Judah cautioned: “The superpower around which we have built our entire security has become erratic, unpredictable, unreliable and deeply emotional.” https://www.tradeandbusiness.uk/news/us-erratic

‘Erratic, unreliable’ USA could pose ‘threat to Europe’, experts warn — UK Trade and Business Commission

The United States has become “erratic” and "unreliable", and could even “be a threat to Europe”, experts including a for

tradeandbusiness.uk

Ben Judah: "I think our relationship with the EU remains locked in what is overwhelmingly a technocratic channel and I think that we need to have far more political high level discussions about where we want this relationship to be in five and ten years between the principals themselves.

Olivia O'Sullivan: "The last time we were spending as much on defence as we're aiming to spend, we were spending about half what we're projected to spend on health in the 2030s." "Making that a shared problem and recognising the gravity of that problem together might help address it."

Professor Phillips O'Brien: "If they can start thinking that way about defence and trusting their partners, that would be a very positive thing." "If European states still see the big thing here is to triumph over each other, they're not going to get anywhere."

Ben Judah: "The relationship between the UK and Ukraine genuinely is a special relationship." "And it's not for nothing that the Russians are so hostile to the UK and that the Ukrainians see the UK as their number one strategic, number one, strategic ally."

Olivia O'Sullivan: "The creation of SAFE itself is a good sign. I think the real prize here is the prospect of a kind of more permanent approach to European defence industrial planning, spending and procurement." "So I think it's important that the UK, and the EU agree access to SAFE."

Professor Phillips O'Brien: "Where they're, if not rejoining, close relationship with the EU, is now wildly popular, but no party seems to be pushing it" "Something that is overwhelmingly supported by the British people, the system isn't actually creating parties that are taking that forward"

Professor Phillips O'Brien: "To talk about the UK on its own is I think partly a, problematic construction." "Europe will fall or rise together. I'm not sure that the idea that you can look at a separate UK from European response now and say the UK could do anything on its own."

Olivia O'Sullivan of Chatham House: "The kind of growing willingness of great powers, specifically China and the US, to use economic ties and trade policies to coerce other states ... makes the whole logic of leaving a wider trade bloc, as we did when we left the EU, flimsier."

Ben Judah: "I think that there is still a lot of short-termism, and a lack of strategic thinking towards the UK in key institutions in Brussels and in certain member states." "I think we saw that over the SAFE negotiations, and how those were treated by key EU institutions."

Professor Phillips O'Brien: "I would even go so far as to say the United States might be a threat to Europe right now, and that needs to be faced." "There is a reasonable argument now that NATO is undermining European security."

Olivia O'Sullivan of Chatham House: "The US has signalled that it will withdraw from its previous role in guaranteeing European security." "The prospect of those capabilities either not being provided in a crisis is what leaves Europe with a gap." "That is a shared risk between the EU and the UK."

Tom Brufatto Executive Director of Policy and Research at Best for Britain, secretariat to the UKTBC: “It is welcome news that the UK government appears to have considered the UKTBC's informed and substantive recommendations, as the UK and EU aim to reach agreement on this crucial area of policy."

UKTBC annual cap and ‘headroom’ proposals driving youth mobility talks — UK Trade and Business Commission

An annual cap of some 45,000 participants and the concept of visa ‘headroom’ - proposals at the heart of the UK Trade an

tradeandbusiness.uk

👏 The UK Government is reported to be ready to offer the EU a youth mobility scheme capped at 45,000 a year for under-30s. This follows the UKTBC's recommendation on the size of the cap in our latest report on the Youth Experience Scheme released in December 2025.

UK to offer 45,000 Brexit visas a year to under-30s from Europe

The UK is examining how to deliver a youth experience scheme with the bloc, while honouring its manifesto pledge to redu

inews.co.uk

Welcome news that the UK govt is seriously considering a key UKTBC recommendation, proposing a YMS for 45,000 young Brits and EU citizens to work or study in the UK or the EU. Reporting by Kitty Donaldson: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/uk-offer-australia-style-youth-visa-deal-eu-4305308

UK to offer 45,000 Brexit visas a year to under-30s from Europe

The UK is examining how to deliver a youth experience scheme with the bloc, while honouring its manifesto pledge to redu

inews.co.uk

Chancellor Rachel Reeves argued in her Mais lecture at Bayes Business School this week that where it was in the national interest, the UK should be “prepared to align with EU regulation, including in further areas of the single market”.

All the signs that Labour wants to undo Brexit

The Government says it will not rejoin the customs union or single market, but senior figures have been pushing for clos

inews.co.uk

📓The UKTBC's report on the Youth Experience Scheme argued domestic fees should not be given to EU students after consultation with University stakeholders. 🎓 Charley Robinson of Universities UK worried that expanding home fee status would exacerbate the funding crisis for UK universities.

Row over tuition fees cut for European students threatens Starmer’s EU reset

British negotiators ‘blindsided’ by Brussels’ demand for a reduction that could cost universities £140m a year

theguardian.com

Chair of the UKTBC Andrew Lewin implores the government to reopen negotiations with the European Union on the SAFE mechanism, one of the key aspects of the May 19 summit agreement.

Donald Trump overstepped his authority by imposing most of his steep tariffs on global imports, the US supreme court ruled on Friday, toppling a key pillar of the president’s aggressive economic agenda. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/20/trump-supreme-court-tariffs-ruling

Trump illegally overstepped executive power with global tariffs, supreme court rules

Ruling is blow to Trump’s bold assertions of authority and topples key pillar of aggressive economic agenda

theguardian.com

An SPS deal is a vital first step to undo the damage to UK farming caused by Brexit. The current trade arrangement is incredibly restrictive for British farming and fishing. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/07/brexit-farm-products-sales-eu

Post-Brexit sales of British farm products to EU fall by 37%

NFU warn it could take years to restore Brexit losses despite efforts to smooth negotiations on farming and other elemen

theguardian.com

William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the BCC: “Things started to take a turn for the worse as the trade implications of Brexit became clear in 2018 and they have been in the doldrums ever since." https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/news/2026/01/eu-reset-must-reverse-trade-slump/

EU Reset Must Reverse Trade Slump - British Chambers of Commerce

New BCC survey data of over 2,000 exporters has laid stark the impact of Brexit, Covid, war, and tariffs on the UK’s exp

britishchambers.org.uk

George Riddell, Managing Director at Goyder Ltd, on the progress made since the government's decision to reset the relationship with the European Union.

Jonny Peters, Chief of Staff @e3g.bsky.social: Due to "unforeseen geopolitical situations, it's absolutely vital that we invest in the UK-EU relationship."