In a heated exchange on GB News, Camila Tominey confronted Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds over the Government's apparent U-turn on an EU-wide Youth Mobility scheme.The clash centred on previous statements from both Thomas-Symonds and Prime Minister Keir Starmer explicitly ruling out such arrangements, with Camilla directly asking the Europe Minister if he had been "lying" to the public.READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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00:00Office, Paymaster General and the Minister for the Constitution and European Union joins me now.
00:05Lovely to see you this morning, Minister, on what I know is going to be a very busy week for you and your department.
00:10Tell me this, though, in a written question in September 2024, you said, and I quote,
00:16we have no plans for an EU-wide youth mobility scheme and there will be no return to freedom of movement.
00:23In the same month, the Prime Minister also told reporters that he had, quotes, no plans for a youth mobility scheme.
00:31You have now got a plan for that. So were you lying or?
00:39So firstly, Camilla, it's very good to join you on your show as always. Always a pleasure on a Sunday morning.
00:45Before I just come to that specific point, just to say that I'm working very hard at the moment,
00:50right up to the wire to deliver for the United Kingdom and to try to deliver a deal tomorrow
00:56that's going to give us more secure borders, that's going to give us lower house to hold bills
01:00and is also going to be good for jobs, good for investment in the United Kingdom.
01:05But I'm pleased to take a break out of that to come on to your show.
01:09In relation to youth mobility specifically that you've asked me about,
01:14I've also said that we would be open to sensible EU proposals.
01:19I've been saying that for some months.
01:22But firstly, we will not go back to freedom of movement.
01:26And secondly, anything has to be consistent with the government's approach in the Migration White Paper last week
01:33to reduce the level of net migration.
01:35The level of net migration has been too high.
01:37People have been telling us on the doorsteps.
01:39It quadrupled between 2019 and 2023 to just under one million.
01:45And this government is committed to bringing the net migration figure down.
01:49And that's exactly what we will do.
01:51But it is a form of free movement, isn't it?
01:53It's the free movement of European students.
01:55And you had ruled it out in September.
01:59It isn't freedom of movement.
02:01We have 13 existing youth mobility schemes.
02:04We've got a youth mobility scheme with Uruguay, for example.
02:07Nobody suggests we've got freedom of movement with Uruguay.
02:11I've said it has to be smart.
02:13It has to be controlled.
02:15That absolutely isn't freedom of movement.
02:17And it will also give, by the way, opportunities for young people here in Britain
02:22to experience different cultures, to go abroad to work, to go abroad for study.
02:27But that is just one aspect, Camilla.
02:29What we will be looking at today in these final hours is,
02:33is this deal overall in the national interest,
02:36overall in the interest of the British people?
02:38And we will only sign it if it does.
02:40Can you guarantee that no money is going to be handed back to Brussels?
02:44There's some reports in the papers this morning
02:46that the French particularly are asking money for our participation
02:50in any defence and security pact.
02:53So, we consider individual programmes on their own merits,
02:59on the basis of value for money and what's in the UK interest.
03:02So, for example, the last government agreed to pay money
03:07into the Horizon and Copernicus programmes.
03:10Now, that clearly has benefit for the United Kingdom.
03:13We supported it in opposition.
03:14I was at a project at Imperial College London, not too far from here,
03:20only a few weeks ago to see some real cutting-edge research
03:24that keeps our university sector world-leading, which it is.