00:00Now moving on, the Brexit debate is back on the agenda after Prime Minister Keir Starmer's
00:04leadership rivals suggested that the UK's place could be back here in the European Union.
00:09Euronews correspondent Marek Gwynne spoke exclusively to the UK's State Minister for
00:13Trade from Strasbourg and started by asking him whether his government should ditch its red lines
00:18and try to rejoin the EU's single market. Well the red lines were an agreement that we had between
00:24ourselves and the British public who elected us in the general election. You're right, it's not
00:28even two years yet since the last general election. We've got another three years before the next
00:33general election and I'm sure that the Labour government is going to be pushing forward on
00:37all these different elements. If we had more regulatory alignment between the UK and the
00:42European Union, just as we're about to do on food and agricultural products, but did that in other
00:47sectors as well, I think you would see a significant saving to business across the whole of the continent
00:53and a significant increase in trade between the UK and the EU. And I think that there's a
00:58really strong feeling that in a few years' time it's perfectly possible that you will see
01:03British troops standing next to Danish troops and Spanish troops and German troops in Ukraine
01:09and defending our European security. It will be crazy if by that time we haven't managed to achieve
01:15a trading arrangement which allowed them to use the same car and buy the same products online
01:21and use services across the whole of the continent as well. Yet while you're pushing for this,
01:27your government is clearly on very fragile ground right now. There will clearly be eventually
01:31an official leadership contest and one of the challenges of former Health Secretary West
01:37Streeting has already adopted a much bolder line on the post-Brexit relationship, saying there needs
01:43to be a special relationship and even the possibility of rejoining the EU. Should that now be the Labour
01:49Party and the Labour government's line as well?
01:52Look, I've been a Remainer from the beginning of time and I remain a Remainer and I will remain
01:58a Remainer until my dying day. So, of course, I would love to see the UK as a member of
02:03the European
02:04Union, but a vote was taken in 2016 and we had a general election in 2024 in which we made
02:10commitments
02:10to the British public, which I don't think we're about to surrender. The truth of the matter is we just
02:17need to get a common sense approach to so many different issues, whether it's business travel
02:22and it's British performing artists being able to tour around Europe or it's standing up to the
02:28security threat. And our need, for instance, we will need to produce more steel, green steel in Europe,
02:36including in the UK, to be able to create the armaments that we're going to need for the future
02:40if we're going to really significantly invest, as we've all said we're going to, in defence and
02:46security. Now, if we're going to do that, we need to make sure that we have a good deal between
02:51the
02:51EU and the UK on steel, for instance. We need to make sure that British cars and electric vehicles
02:57can be sold in the European Union without additional burdens. All of these things, I think,
03:03to be honest, are just common sense.
03:04You also mentioned steel. The EU has recently halved its quotas and doubled its tariffs on foreign steel
03:10in response to the more hostile international landscape it's operating in. Are you afraid that the UK
03:17will be caught in that?
03:18So on steel, we are having very productive conversations with steel. We ourselves are introducing new steel
03:25trade measures on the 1st of July, just as the European Union is. We need to make sure that we
03:30don't
03:30provide a problem for each other. And because, frankly, the problem of that overcapacity in steel,
03:35which undermines sovereign steel capacity on the continent of Europe, is not provided by us.
03:41It's provided by China and some other countries in the world. But I'm very confident that we will
03:46come to a good arrangement on that. In relation to the idea of a European preference,
03:52a preference aroba or made in Europe campaign, I'm very confident that people accept this idea that
03:58the supply chains, in particular for cars and electric vehicles across Europe, include the UK.
04:04And if we're going to make sure that the whole of the continent of Europe prospers,
04:09I think Made in Europe will probably will have to include the UK as part of that agenda.
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