Britain is set to be hit with an £8.75billion bill after Labour announced plans to rejoin the Erasmus scheme.
The scheme, which allows British students to study, train or gain work experience across the EU, is set to cost significantly more than the £570million initially touted.
While this was the fee proposed for a one-year membership, Brussels plans to increase funding for the scheme by more than 50 per cent, from around €26billion to €41billion, from 2028.
When combined with extra costs associated with joining EU programmes after Brexit, this means the bloc could charge Britain £1.25billion a year between 2028 and 2034, reports The Telegraph.
The UK left the scheme under Boris Johnson, who argued it did not offer value for money.
Downing Street insisted it is “a good deal”, while declining to deny reports the UK had pushed for a larger reduction in fees, saying only that negotiators, “as with every area of international engagement, pushed for the best deal for the British people.”
Of the £570million fee, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The UK will receive most of that money back to distribute amongst the UK beneficiaries.
“We will also have the opportunity to compete for grants from a £1billion central pot directly managed by the European Commission.”
Former Tory Brexit negotiator Lord Frost said: “The Government has done what it always does make a concession up front and sort out the consequences later.
“They pay an inflated amount to get back into Erasmus for one year, they won’t then want to leave again, so they will end up paying whatever the EU wants for the next seven years.
“The truth is, of course, they just want to be liked by the EU and don’t care what price they have to pay.”
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All English secondary schools to teach about healthy relationships
All secondary schools in England will have to teach students about healthy relationships to tackle misogyny as Sir Keir Starmer said too often toxic ideas are “going unchallenged.”
Ministers are set to announce plans to intervene early on worrying behaviour of young people as part of the Government’s strategy to halve violence against women and girls (Vawg) in a decade.
Teachers will be given specialist training to talk to pupils about issues such as consent and children who show harm towards parents, siblings or in relationships will be signed up to behaviour change programmes.
Secondary school children as young as 11, mainly boys, could be sent on the anti-misogyny training courses if they exhibit concerning behaviour, the Times reported.
The pilot could be extended to primary schools too, the newspaper also said.
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