Rees-Mogg criticises new EU deal over free movement, payments and energy alignment

GB News broadcast a strongly critical account of a proposed new EU deal on 3 November, with presenter Jacob Rees-Mogg leading the attack. He compared Prime Minister Andy Burnham's planned trip to Brussels to King John's submission to the Pope in 1213 and called the arrangement "membership of the European Union by any other name".

Rees-Mogg said free movement would return, with 80,000 foreign students allowed to come and European criminals able to stay in the United Kingdom. He said the EU had told member states that criminals could not be deported because they had the same freedom of movement rights as other people.

He also said the UK would pay about £450 million towards student fees, equivalent to 50,000 student loans a year for British students, and would give money to improve roads in poorer European countries. He claimed pesticide and herbicide bans and restrictions on gene editing would hit food supplies, and that the UK would subsidise lower-quality European food while finding it harder to import from Australia and New Zealand.

The programme's panel split over energy alignment. Matthew Lazar, a political commentator, rejected the "sell-out" description and argued that if the UK wanted the advantages of the EU energy market it would have to pay membership dues. He said he did not think the UK should ever have left the EU.

Philip Davies, a former Conservative MP, said the EU energy market was part of the problem behind high energy prices and that European emissions trading costs were higher than the UK's, so alignment would put up prices. He also said the deal was a cynical attempt to overturn the referendum result and predicted it was only the first stage.

Rees-Mogg said the arrangement was being imposed without a vote, referendum or general election. The broadcast did not include a response from the government or the EU.