The EU is demanding Britain takes in more young Europeans to secure a deal on food safety, it has emerged.
Brussels is refusing to budge on finalising a key UK demand unless Downing Street concedes and accepts a higher number of temporary workers from Europe, negotiators have said.
Bureaucrats have shifted their position to link a deal to ease export checks on food to the number of young Europeans allowed to live, work and study in Britain.
Negotiating teams had previously agreed to pursue separate agreements.
During the latest round of talks, a senior UK cabinet minister – Nick Thomas-Symonds – was told that the youth scheme was the EU’s number one priority.
An EU diplomat said: “Doing an SPS deal is more urgent for the Brits than it is for us.
“It is not our big priority in the negotiation and if the UK wants that agreement by 2027 there will have to be movement and a deal on youth mobility. Numbers and the limit on numbers will be at the centre of that negotiation.”
Former Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost said: “Yet again our negotiators make the same mistakes.
“Three months ago, the Government told us the food standards deal was done. Now it turns out it isn’t unless they make a further concession on youth mobility.
“I don’t want either of those things, so am happy with the blockage. But I entirely expect the government to concede and for us to get both, in the worst possible forms.”
It follows the huge Brexit betrayal where the Prime Minister surrendered access to British waters for European fishermen for 12 years.
Downing Street wants the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) deal concluded by early 2027 in a bid to lower shopping basket prices for British families.
Brexit minister Nick Thomas-Symonds pledged to have it done “by 2027, so businesses and consumers see the tangible impacts as soon as possible — money saved at the borders, profits freed up to invest, pounds kept in the pocket of working people”.
But he appeared to concede it is now linked to EU mobility talks.
He said: “As we move into this stage of the negotiations, I have already set out the timetable on the SPS agreement.
“But obviously what we want to do is to be able to then do similar things in other parts of the negotiation. But we obviously want to move forward with it all as a package.”
Britain agreed to dynamically align to EU rules on food to ease the number of checks on exports to the bloc.
The Government also agreed to broker a youth mobility scheme that would allow all Europeans under the age of 30 the right to live, work or study in Britain, and vice versa for young Britons.
British diplomats are understood to be making the case that a youth mobility scheme is equally beneficial.
And Mr Thomas-Symonds used his speech to the College of Europe in Bruges to praise such an arrangement.
“On youth mobility, we believe that giving the opportunity for young people to learn and get experience is vital… giving young people across the UK and EU a chance to study, work, live abroad – build friendships, understanding and creating opportunities,” he said.