Conservative MP Mark Francois has launched a scathing attack on "Remainer" Sir Keir Starmer, accusing the Prime Minister of attempting to rejoin the European Union through a "stealth" process without proper parliamentary scrutiny.
According to EU documents, Britain will have to contribute financially to the Union's budget as part of Starmer's "Brexit reset".
The documents state: "The United Kingdom should contribute financially to supporting the relevant costs associated with the Union's work in these policy areas."
Speaking to GB News, Francois stated: "What Sir Keir Starmer is doing here, this is all about trying to rejoin the EU by stealth. Not in one go, not with the referendum, not with a big clear cut decision, but by grandmother's footsteps."
PA / GB News
|Mark Francois has hit out a 'Remainer' Keir Starmer's deal to 'dynamically align' with the EU
The Conservative MP alleged that Labour is pursuing a strategy called "dynamic alignment" which would effectively make Britain subservient to EU rules in certain areas.
Francois explained the implications of this approach, stating that dynamic alignment "means if once you agree to be bound in those areas, once they move, you have to follow them regardless of what Parliament thinks".
He warned: "So you're giving away in certain areas sovereignty bit by bit."
The MP characterised the strategy as a "Trojan horse", explaining: "You call it dynamic alignment, and people don't quite understand what that means, but they know what being a rule-taker means, and it's the same thing."
GETTY | The UK has agreed to 'dynamically align' with EU rules on food safety, animal welfare and carbon emissions
According to Francois, this arrangement would mean Britain must accept EU rules in specific sectors even if Parliament objects.
Francois revealed that Labour had eliminated a key oversight mechanism approximately six months ago: "Parliament used to have a committee called the European Scrutiny Committee.
"Their role, chaired by the inimitable Bill Cash, was to be a watchdog for anything like this, anything that came from the EU."
The committee's function was to examine EU-related matters in detail: "They went through it with a fine tooth comb, and what did Labour do? Quite cynically, about six months ago they abolished it."
GB News
|Francois told GB News that the alignment would 'take away Britain's sovereignty bit by bit'
He suggested this move was calculated: "They must have known they must have had this in mind when they were doing it. It's really cynical."
Francois criticised Labour's manifesto language, arguing it deliberately obscured their true intentions.
"I understand the concept of having a mandate in a manifesto, but it said reset. It was deliberately that it didn't say dynamic alignment," he said.
He claimed the manifesto failed to mention crucial details: "It didn't say if we become the Government, we will vote despite the referendum, to go back to being a rule-taker. It didn't say we'll surrender a large part of our fishing rights for 12 years for virtually nothing in return."
The MP insisted: "If it had said rule-taker, then fair enough. But it didn't."