Daily Mail, by James Tapsfield, on UK Politics, 5 November 2026

3.0out of 10Minor

Minister snaps 'get a life' over fears Brexit deal will spark ban on smoky bacon crisps - as PM faces demands for billions and no criminals returned at big EU summit

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A minister snapped 'get a life' over fears Andy Burnham 's Brexit deal will lead to a ban on smoky bacon crisps. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle also accused people of being 'obsessed' with quirky Brussels rules. The blunt dismissal came as the concessions Andy Burnham might have to make became clearer. Brussels is demanding a block on deporting EU criminals and billions of pounds in contributions to improve living standards in member states, according to documents leaked ahead of a big summit on November 20.

It has also emerged the PM could agree to 80,000 young people coming to the UK every year as part of a 'mobility' deal – and spend £450million a year subsidising tuition fees for EU students. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle accused people of being 'obsessed' with quirky Brussels rules The blunt dismissal came as the concessions Andy Burnham might have to make – at an upcoming summit with EU President Ursula von der Leyen – became clearer Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said the Government was 'signing away control of our food laws' A food and farming deal is among three agreements Mr Burnham is on track to sign at the summit in Brussels.

It is expected to see the UK accept EU regulations on plant, animal and food trade standards to remove post-Brexit checks from exports. But concerns have been raised that crisps could fall foul of planned EU rules prohibiting the use of 'meaty' terms to describe vegetarian food. Manufacturers could be forced to change product names. Asked whether closer alignment with the bloc could lead to the banning of bacon crisps' labelling, Dame Angela told Times Radio: 'We've had EU straight bananas and now we're talking about banning smoky bacon crisps, I think you should get a life. 'This is actually about ensuring that we can do business with our closest neighbours. 'We've got huge potential growth in our economy if we allow our farmers and food producers to be able to export into Europe again without all the huge uncertainty and the costs and frictions that Brexit brought us. 'This will be a deal that improves that situation and it will enable this economy to grow and for us to have higher levels of prosperity than we've had before. 'If you want to obsess about smoky bacon crisps, I suppose that's your choice.'

But shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins swiped back on X: 'Smokey bacon crisps matter, @angelaeagle, because your government is signing away control of our food laws to the EU. 'We will have no say, no influence and no veto over the rules they set.' Ahead of the November 20 summit, a 200-page draft text for a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement has been shared among the bloc's members. It has also emerged that draft deals on emissions trading and a 'youth experience scheme' are being circulated alongside a 15-page joint UK-EU statement.

The draft statement sets out how British taxpayers' money to build roads, airports and green energy facilities across the bloc's poorer member states. 'We agree that the UK's participation in parts of the EU's internal market requires an appropriate level of financial contribution towards reducing economic and social disparities between the regions of the EU that reflects the degree of the UK's participation in the EU's internal market,' it reportedly states.

The document says 'the UK commits not to proceed with' deportation of offenders to EU countries – . Since Brexit, EU students in the UK have been charged higher international fees of between £11,400 and £38,000 a year for undergraduate courses. This is compared to the lower domestic rate for British students of £9,790 a year. But Brussels is determined to see EU students pay the same rate as British students while they study in the UK.

It has also been reported that between 75,000 and 80,000 18 to 30-year-olds each year will be able to travel to the UK from the EU for up to three years under a proposed youth mobility scheme. The proposed annual cap is said to be significantly higher than a figure of 50,000 previously offered by the UK's negotiators. The Government has stressed that nothing has been finalised yet and the UK will not agree to all the EU demands. Mr Burnham said the potential economic benefits of the deal were too big to ignore.

He told the Economist magazine that new Treasury analysis suggested that, 'at the high end', easing food and farming exports to the EU 'could add up to 0.4 per cent of GDP' – equal to £12billion a year. He added: 'Now, that is a number that you cannot ignore… If something can be done to add 0.4 per cent to British GDP, that should be pursued very vigorously – and that's what I'm doing.' Brexiteers have warned against leaving Britain as a 'rule-taker' and 'surrendering' the freedoms won by leaving the EU.

Meanwhile, former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has fuelled the row over Mr Burnham floating rejoining the bloc completely after the next election. Mr Barnier, who led the EU team during the bitter divorce proceedings between the UK and Brussels, told Sky News: 'I always thought during the Brexit negotiations that the door will remain open. EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic has been laying out the bloc's demands ahead of the summit 'If it is the choice of the UK to ask for a new negotiation to rejoin, it's perfectly possible to begin such a negotiation without any kind of obligation to take part in the euro.'

He added: 'But what is and what remains unnegotiable is the condition to join the single market. 'There is no … possible negotiation on any kind of cherry-picking or the single market 'a la carte'. 'The UK knows quite perfectly the condition to be part and to rejoin the single market and the customs union.'

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What we found (2)

The Daily Mail reports leaked EU demands ahead of a UK-EU summit and a row over smoky bacon crisp labelling, quoting the minister, her Conservative shadow and the Prime Minister. In its own voice, with no source, it calls the deportation commitment part of Labour's "desperate efforts" to relieve prisons. Elsewhere it uses verdict words such as "cosy up" and "funnelled" for reported negotiating positions.

  1. States one side's claim as fact

    Minor

    “part of Labour's desperate efforts to relieve pressure on UK prisons”

    Why this matters
    The Mail adds, in its own voice and with no source, that the deportation commitment is "part of Labour's desperate efforts to relieve pressure on UK prisons". It assigns the Government a motive and calls it desperate.
    The impression it gives
    A reader believes the Government itself wants to stop deporting EU offenders to ease prison overcrowding, and that this is an established fact.
    The context
    Nobody in the article gives this motive. The Mail's own earlier sentence presents the block on deportations as a demand from Brussels found in leaked documents, and the Government says nothing has been finalised. The prison motive is the outlet's own inference, printed as fact.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“Brussels is demanding a block on deporting EU criminals”
    • Elsewhere in the article“nothing has been finalised yet and the UK will not agree to all the EU demands”

    Show it in the article

  2. Uses a loaded word

    Minor

    “to cosy up to the bloc”

    Why this matters
    The Mail describes the Government's negotiating aim as wanting "to cosy up to the bloc", in its own voice.
    The impression it gives
    A reader takes the deal as an ingratiating favour to Brussels, not a trade negotiation.
    The context
    The article's own reporting describes a food and farming agreement meant to remove post-Brexit checks on exports. That is a negotiation over trade terms, and the verdict in "cosy up" comes from the outlet, not from any source.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“accept EU regulations on plant, animal and food trade standards to remove post-Brexit checks from exports”

    Show it in the article

    “could be funnelled into projects”

    Why this matters
    The Mail says taxpayers' money "could be funnelled" to poorer member states. The verb suggests something hidden or improper.
    The impression it gives
    A reader believes money is being diverted in an underhand way.
    The context
    The draft text the Mail itself quotes describes an openly stated "appropriate level of financial contribution" linked to UK participation in parts of the internal market. Nothing in the article shows anything covert.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“requires an appropriate level of financial contribution”

    Show it in the article

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