Rachel Reeves' push to improve EU ties remains boxed in by red lines

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : Yet if Labour wants to make progress at the EU-UK summit pencilled in for February, and beyond, the EU has made abundantly clear it wants to discuss a youth mobility scheme.
54% : Chancellor's visit to EU meeting looks for smoother trade to improve growth but youth mobility scheme remains sticking pointRachel Reeves is seeking a "deeper, more mature relationship" between Britain and the EU: this was her central message to the bloc's finance ministers in Brussels a fortnight ago.
54% : In her brief speech to the meeting of her European counterparts - the first a UK chancellor had attended since Brexit - Reeves mentioned the UK's "relationship" with the EU, nine times.
52% : Despite once claiming he wanted to see the return of free movement with the EU, Keir Starmer had good reason for ruling it out as Labour policy - and with it therefore, single market membership.
50% : Mujtaba Rahman, of consultancy Eurasia Group, a keen analyst of the twists and turns of government Brexit policy, says: "I think there's a growing realisation, in the Treasury and beyond, that smoother trade with the EU is one of the few levers they can pull to improve growth over the medium-term."As well as seeking ways to deliver improved economic outcomes, the chancellor also hopes to placate business leaders, who remain grumpy about her budget tax raid.
49% : And it ought not to be beyond the wit of the politicians to design a scheme that would help young people from the UK to get apprenticeships, training and work placements in the EU, as well as allowing for the stereotypical rich kids' gap year.
44% : It is Labour's corrosive fear of Nigel Farage and Reform that has shaped the government's rhetoric here; but it may make its own life harder, if it later has to make the argument for some concessions to the EU on youth mobility.
38% : Exactly what the UK government wants from the EU is much harder to discern, however - to the irritation of Brussels and pro-EU Labour MPs.
27% : And our new man in Washington, Lord Mandelson, as a former EU trade commissioner, is likely to be acutely aware of possible clashes between anything the UK might offer Donald Trump and the prospects for an EU reset.

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