BRUSSELS — The U.K. decided to leave the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme because Brits’ poor foreign language skills made membership too expensive to justify, a senior British official has revealed. Lower take-up of the scheme by British students compared to other nationalities — put down to a weak aptitude for language learning — meant London expected to pay in nearly €300 million more a year than it received back, Nick Leake, a veteran senior diplomat at the U.K. Mission said this week. It comes as youth organizations on both sides of the channel launch a renewed push for the U.K. to r ..read more

LONDON — The government’s new Brexit trade border system will create a “gaping hole” for animal diseases to enter the U.K., health chiefs overseeing the U.K’s busiest port have warned. In a letter to British MPs, the head of the Dover Port Health Authority accused ministers of being “complacent” to the risk of the spread of illnesses like African Swine Fever. The government “will create a gaping hole in this border that does not currently exist, and specifically when it comes to the entry of high-risk rest of world animal products,” Lucy Manzano, head of Dover Port Health Authority, said. The ..read more

LONDON ― It should be a dream Brexit scenario for the City of London: a chance to break away from the EU and move closer to the U.S. The square mile has been offered the opportunity to modernize with New York and immediately reap the benefits of a faster-moving financial system, rather than wait around for the slow-churning bureaucracy of the EU. But, as has proved the case several times in the recent past, the City seems reluctant to take advantage of this particular potential Brexit dividend. Its denizens would rather stick with the EU, even if the whole point of leaving the bloc was to be a ..read more

LONDON — Liz Truss’ latest big idea to save Britain is to rope in Nigel Farage. Not everyone is convinced. Speaking in the United States last week, Britain’s shortest-lived prime minister suggested Britain’s Mr. Brexit — once a thorn in Tory sides — should be brought into the fold to “help turn our country around.” Her suggestion came just weeks after he turned up at the launch of her new Popular Conservatives group.  The outspoken and controversial Farage is currently honorary president of upstart rival party Reform, having been a leading figure in the campaign for Britain to leave ..read more

DUBLIN – The U.K. government’s plans to give conditional immunity to killers from Northern Ireland’s Troubles-era conflict would flout the fundamentals of European human rights law, a Belfast judge ruled Wednesday in support of victims challenging the law. Justice Adrian Colton’s judgment deals a blow to the core concept of the Legacy Act, which became law last September and is due to come into force in May. The act seeks to end all civil and criminal cases connected to political violence committed before the Good Friday peace accord of 1998, and replace them with a new fact-finding commission ..read more

LONDON — The EU and U.K. reached a post-Brexit agreement on plans to combat illegal migration. The British government and Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, have agreed a new working arrangement which “provides the basis for mutually beneficial cooperation,” the U.K. Home Office said Friday. The EU’s Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson will travel to London Friday to witness the signing of the agreement, alongside Home Secretary James Cleverly. Greater cooperation on irregular migration — where people cross borders without official permission — has been in the works for ..read more

LONDON — World leaders gather at the “Davos of defense” on Friday to talk support for Ukraine. But as drama goes, the Munich Security Conference might just be the warm-up act. Russia has been excluded from the annual defense powwow — but Moscow’s cantankerous Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to attend next Tuesday’s meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro. “It will be a shouting match,” predicted one senior U.K. government official. Like others POLITICO spoke to for this piece, they were granted anonymity to speak freely about British diplomacy. David Cameron, the British ex-pr ..read more

BELFAST — Northern Ireland was drawn up, a century ago, to create an unassailably secure British Protestant majority within its new borders. So when Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill finally gained the necessary cross-community votes Saturday to become the U.K. region’s leader after a two-year battle, even her most ardent critics recognized the powerful symbolism of the moment. In a Stormont Parliament Building where Northern Ireland’s founding father and first premier, James Craig, once observed he led “a Protestant parliament and a Protestant state,” the Irish republican O’Neill vowed to be “a fi ..read more

LONDON — New red tape caused by the U.K. leaving the EU is the “price you pay” for sovereignty, a Conservative minister declared Wednesday. Speaking on the fourth anniversary of Britain’s exit from the bloc, Andrea Leadsom said she was “still absolutely convinced” that the U.K. had made the right decision to leave. Her comments come amid warnings from businesses that the government’s new trade border system, introduced on Wednesday after years of delays, could lead to higher prices and problems for importers. From Wednesday, EU businesses sending agricultural produce to the U.K. will need to c ..read more

Democratic Unionist leader Jeffrey Donaldson agreed to lead his party back into power-sharing at Stormont, paving the way for the end of a two year suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Donaldson said the breakthrough was conditional on the U.K. quickly publishing legislation to reassure unionists on strengthening their links with Britain. In his own choreographed statement Tuesday morning, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris — representing the U.K. government in Westminster — pledged this would indeed happen. Northern Ireland’s main unionist party is a legally essential part ..read more