EU deal, Chagos deal and Labour's confusion: Graham Stringer MP laments his party's direction

Graham Stringer 28 May 2025

The Blackley and Middleton South MP bemoans deals he feels are bad for the country

Try this as a thought experiment; imagine the officials and ministers who negotiated the recent EU agreement, and the Chagos Islands deal had the responsibility of representing rail workers in pay negotiations.

Could any reasonable person believe they would have done a better job than Mick Whelan (Aslef) and Mick Lynch (RMT). The answer must be no. There would be no train drivers earning more than £65,000 per year and average pay would be lower. The reason is simple, union representatives have a sharp focus on their members interests and a clear view of how to use the strongest cards in their negotiating hand.

If the government’s negotiators had been doing the job in all likelihood, they would have said we understand the public subsidy to the railways has gone up so we will take a pay cut and shed jobs. Reporting back to their members it’s likely there would have been a motion of no confidence passed in the blink of an eye and they certainly wouldn’t have been re-elected.

This is the first cabinet of an incoming Labour government that was not elected by the Parliamentary Labour Party

This analogy with the disastrous Chagos and EU negotiations is not perfect, but it is very close.

The International Court of Justice gave an advisory ruling that the Chagos Islands should be handed over to Mauritius. This is not legally binding and should have been ignored particularly as one of the judges represents the Chinese Government which itself breaks international law and is pursuing genocidal policies against the Uighurs. The UK said not only would we give the islands back, but we would pay Mauritius for the privilege. Mauritius is 1300 miles away and has never owned them. The sum of money involved is not trivial, £30 billion for a ninety-nine-year lease. This doesn’t include extra funds for Mauritian development and a guarantee that Mauritians would get a decent share of any construction contracts that are being let.

There is rhetoric from Mauritius, China and a number of dictatorships within the UN that this is a decolonisation issue. But what of the Chagossians who were removed from the archipelago in the 1960s. They have no connection with Mauritius and don’t want one. They just want to return but have not even been consulted. This is a strange kind of decolonisation which is not in the interests of the people who used to live there or the UK.

As a measure of how bad the new deal with the European Union is, one only has to ask the Prime Minister in his previous role as shadow Brexit Secretary. Theresa May when Prime Minister negotiated a similar but better deal than the one negotiated in London. It was known as the Chequers deal, he voted against it. He now extolls the virtues of an inferior one.

Two facts not commented on enough about the current cabinet, they are the first cabinet of an incoming Labour government that was not elected by the Parliamentary Labour Party and nearly all senior members chosen by Keir Starmer wanted to overturn the referendum decision of 2016 by holding a second referendum. Having failed to overturn the largest democratic vote in this country’s history they want to surreptitiously slide us back in with a deal they know is not good for this country.

The deal gives EU trawlers access to our waters for the next twelve years, and control over our energy, food and agricultural produce. We will have no say at all in future changes of the law in these areas and no representation on the European Court of Justice which will make decisions on any disputes. For this agreement the government has agreed to as yet unspecified financial contributions. Just as vaguely in many areas the agreement is an agreement to make agreements. At least with the Chagos deal we know the cost.

France was prepared to scupper the whole defence agreement for the right to fish in our waters

I have no objection to young people from anywhere in the world studying in our universities if they meet the entry requirements and pay the fees that the university set. From now on EU students will not have to pay the full fee and this will put more pressure on our university’s finances. I have made this point in the House of Commons and on the Science and Technology Committee a number of times with one exception EU universities are second rate only one gets into the top 100 of the Times university list whereas many of our universities are in the top 100. So, we’re giving a huge financial present to EU students at a significant cost to our universities.

Much has been made of improved cooperation in defence but there is little sign of a changing attitude when France was prepared to scupper the whole defence agreement for the right to fish in our waters. The EU with the exception of the states who border Russia are deeply unserious about defence and we have no guarantee of access into the EU rearmament fund.

When this country voted to leave the EU, the EU wanted to make life as difficult as it could for the UK in order to stop other countries leaving too. It was described as a punishment beating. It is impossible to justify giving up so much for so little and creating another chance for the EU to damage us. The Prime Minister said this is taking us forward not looking backwards to 2016.

Quite the reverse. It is reopening those wounds and rubbing salt in them. Trade union leaders who do not carry out their members wishes don’t last long in their job. Labour MPs are now worrying that their punishment beating will be at the next General Election. They can find no answer to the electorate’s question why give £3billion to Mauritius and unspecified billions to the EU while cutting benefits to pensioners and the disabled?

Header image: BBC

About Graham Stringer

Graham Stringer is an occasional columnist for Manchester Confidential. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Blackley and Middleton South. He was elected to Parliament in 1997. Until 1999 he was on the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs select committee, then was a Labour Government whip and subsequently a member of the Transport Select Committee in the last years of Labour Government. Prior to parliament he was the Leader of Manchester City Council from 1984-1996. He is credited for being a principal agent in the return of city confidence and Manchester's regeneration.

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