A drug dealer who was caught with illegal drugs worth thousands of pounds in his car has been jailed for four years.
It's likely that would mean very limited numbers allowed to enter the UK, and only with a visa, for a limited time.Under those conditions, ministers hope it would not inflate net migration numbers. It's far from what the EU would like.
The UK already has similar schemes with 13 countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan."When we are comfortable having those relationships, why are we so averse to having it with our nearest neighbours?" Calum Miller asks, "It just doesn't really make sense".Paula Surridge, a professor of political sociology at Bristol University, argues that public views on immigration are more nuanced than many people think. "Voters care most about what they perceive as illegal migration – small boat crossings and so on," she says, "People coming here to study or to work, particularly young people, are not a particular cause for concern" for most.
"There will definitely be a group of voters that are upset [about potential deals], but they were never going to vote Labour."Of those who backed Labour in 2024, she adds, about three quarters previously voted Remain in the Brexit referendum. The political risk to the government of signing pacts with the EU is "smaller than it appears", she adds.
Conservative pollster Lord Hayward is more cautious – and is concerned that a deal may pose a "bear trap" for the government if it's seen as providing free movement to young Europeans. "It will provide serious difficulties for them to come to an agreement on something which could easily be portrayed as EU membership 2.0."
Even before Sir Keir's upcoming summit on Monday, his opponents are raising that spectre.He added that shopping trolleys were not ending up in the river by accident and "we need to call it out".
"We need to do all we can as a nation to reduce the amount of waste and that type of behaviour for the long term," he said.Gerwyn Chillcot from Bridgend is volunteering at the clean-up and said the mess was "disgusting".
"To think all this mess that has been dumped over the years is disgusting, but it's good it's being cleaned up now for the environment."This is toxic at the end of the day and all the chemicals from the tyres are going into the water."