Brussels is preparing to offer Keir Starmer a key concession in talks over an agricultural deal, giving the beleaguered prime minister an important victory in his efforts to move closer to the EU.
European officials have conceded that the UK can keep its ban on live animal exports as part of any joint deal on food and agricultural products, according to sources on both sides of the talks, even though the EU has not imposed such a ban.
The carve-out will be a significant fillip for Starmer’s efforts to negotiate closer EU ties in a series of areas including emissions trading and youth mobility.
The prime minister listed his prospective EU deal on Monday as one of three examples of his government’s progress, as he fights for his political career in the face of growing calls from his own MPs for him to quit.
One British official said of the agricultural deal: “We’re confident on this and don’t think it’s going to be an issue but of course negotiations are ongoing.”
Neither the Cabinet Office nor the European Commission, which are leading the negotiations, would comment while talks were still ongoing. But one Brussels source pointed out that, according to a framework agreement signed by both parties last May, the UK can be exempted from EU regulations if the UK rules are stricter than the EU’s. European officials say because the ban would only apply to UK farmers, it would not negatively affect farmers in the EU.
Starmer is hoping to sign an agricultural trade deal as one of three key elements of a new EU agreement to be announced at a summit this summer. He pinned significant political hopes on the deal as he tried to persuade Labour MPs to back him after the local elections last week.
During a speech on Monday billed as a “make-or-break” moment in his premiership, Starmer said: “The last government was defined by breaking our relationship with Europe; this Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe.”
So far, negotiations are mainly being held up by a standoff over whether European students should pay the same university tuition fees as part of a youth mobility scheme.
An agricultural deal is expected to be easier to agree, though negotiators say there are important areas where the UK will want to opt out of EU rules.
One such area is on the export of live animals, including cows, sheep and pigs, for fattening or slaughter. The EU is the world’s largest live farm animal exporter, but animal welfare campaigners say the practice causes overcrowding, exhaustion, dehydration and stress.
Rishi Sunak’s government imposed a ban on such exports in 2024, in a move it said was “capitalising on a post-Brexit freedoms and bolstering the UK’s position as a world leader in animal welfare standards”.
Lawyers and animal welfare experts said that without a specific carve-out, the UK would have to drop the ban altogether.
Catherine Barnard, a professor of European law at the University of Cambridge, said: “There would need to be an express carve-out in the SPS [sanitary and phytosanitary] agreement. People in the UK care very much about this, so while in the EU the UK tried and failed to stop exports in the past.”
David Bowles, the head of public affairs at the RSPCA, said: “It is vital – in the interests of these animals – that this successful ban is protected. An exemption is vital, and will help protect things like the prohibition of live exports, puppy imports, and bans on cages for farmed animals.”
The UK has had to give way on other animal welfare rules during the negotiation process. The Guardian revealed last month the EU was likely to block ministers from enacting their manifesto commitment of banning the import of foie gras, and similarly will not allow the UK to ban fur imports.
In a recent interview with the Guardian, the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, defended these compromises. “The prize is big,” she said. “We can talk about the detail, but the overall prize here is to bring down the barriers at the border.”
