EXCL: Starmer’s EU Erasmus+ scheme to cost 20 TIMES as much per student

“Rejoining the Erasmus scheme is Labour’s latest Brexit betrayal,” says Reform’s Suella Braverman

Latest ‘Re-Set’ costs over £½bn for Year 1, ditching more economical & popular UK Turing scheme

What follows is from the Facts4EU think-tank in collaboration with Stand for our Sovereignty and CIBUK.Org, and in exclusive association with GB News.
The Rt Hon Suella Braverman KC MP, gives us her thoughts exclusively, further comments are supplied by Lord Redwood.

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As arguments rage about defence spend, Govt throws over £½bn+ per year at wasteful EU project

Today we can exclusively reveal to readers the shocking facts behind the decision, slipped out on Thursday, that the UK is indeed going to join the breathtakingly expensive, £½bn+ per year, EU Erasmus+, ‘student exchange’ scheme.

The payment demanded by the EU for Year 1 alone means that the average higher education student using the Erasmus+ scheme will cost the taxpayer MORE THAN 14 TIMES the cost under the current Turing scheme, which is much more popular. Furthermore, Facts4EU can reveal that this will rise to MORE THAN 20 TIMES from Year 2, at current rates.

This report which has been produced by Facts4EU, in collaboration with The Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIBUK) and Stand for Our Sovereignty (SOS), responds to the news that the Government has agreed to the EU’s ‘concession’ on the Erasmus+ ‘youth exchange programme’. This means the first-year payment to the EU for 2027/28 will be “approximately £570 million”.

This information has been sourced from a document produced by the Research Service of the EU Parliament, seen by Facts4EU and shown to GB News, with whom we have shared this exclusive report. This has been confirmed by the UK Government in Parliament, in response to a written question from Lord Redwood.

How does the new EU Erasmus+ scheme compare to the UK’s existing Turing scheme?

Below we show the comparison between what students have now with the excellent UK Turing Scheme, and what is on offer from 2027 to replace it, now that the Government has agreed the EU’s Erasmus+ scheme.

We and our partners have produced three main charts about this, with the third one being what we refer to as “the killer chart”.

The EU’s unbelievable £½ billion demand for only Year 1 of Erasmus+, rising after that

Soon after Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘EU Re-Set Summit’, it was announced that the UK would receive a reduction on its first-year payment into the Erasmus+ scheme of 30%. What was not apparent was that this reduction was from a figure that was already excessive.

With the figure now demanded of the UK being £570 million for Year 1, then once the 30% reduction is removed in Year 2 onwards (2028/29) thereafter, the UK will face a bill of £815 million per annum. This is likely to rise, but the new amount will not be known until after the EU Commission’s next budget has been approved for 2028 onwards.

As we pointed out to GB News, “These are massive sums when the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is apparently struggling to find urgent and desperately needed extra monies for defence.”

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“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – Turing versus Erasmus+

The UK’s Turing Scheme successfully replaced Erasmus+ on the UK’s EU exit. Significantly more students used Turing than ever used Erasmus+. Erasmus+ itself was barely used by British students, as the chart below shows.

As for global destinations, British students will now have to lower their horizons

Erasmus+ is essentially a scheme for Europe – the EU, EFTA, and candidate countries such as Serbia. Whilst the EU talks about a long list of countries, these are severely restricted in what they can offer. This can be seen from the numbers of students able to go to the US. This was less in 2024 (latest data) for the combined total of all nationalities of the 30+ countries in the scheme than for the UK on its own in the first year of the Turing scheme.

Why is Erasmus+ now so expensive?

Since the UK’s exit, Erasmus+ no longer resembles anything like a student exchange scheme and includes under 30s coming for any reason loosely connected with education.

Crucially, the EU has also expanded it to include eligibility for young people from more countries, especially those lining up to join the EU, most of which are very poor. This means the EU (including the UK) will be footing the bill and the extra is likely to be in excess of £1.5bn. The UK will in effect be subsidising the EU’s candidate countries.

The EU insisted the UK reduce its fee levels from the current average for overseas students of c. £22,000 per year down to the level paid by UK students, c. £9,000 per year. The difference will be footed by the UK taxpayer. Questions also remain around visa costs and free health provision.

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Observations

“Why is Starmer doing this?”

While compiling this report, we and our colleagues from Facts4EU and CIBUK found ourselves asking the above question. What is the benefit to Britain? How can Sir Keir Starmer justify spending over half-a-billion pounds in the first year – and substantially more each year thereafter – on a pointless EU scheme when the country urgently needs money to defend the country and its people? How many defence drones could be bought for half-a-billion pounds? And defence is only one out of countless areas which are under financial pressure.

The answer, once again, is ideology. It seems the Prime Minister will do anything to please his new EU masters.

It is often said that politicians seek power. In this case we have a PM, his cabinet, and almost all of his MPs and Peers wishing nothing more than to subordinate themselves to a fundamentally undemocratic and frequently anti-democratic body. Not only do his various ‘Re-Set’ initiatives give absolute power to the EU, they also cost the country a small fortune in each case.

In addition, as Suella Braverman points out in her comments to us, he disadvantages sections of the population each time. In this case it is our young people, who will no longer have the opportunity to use the Turing Scheme to study at top universities in other parts of the world, from the US to Australia. It also discriminates against some of the most disadvantaged young people in the country – something it might be thought would concern a Labour Prime Minister.

This is of no concern, it seems, if his ideological need to prostrate the country before the EU empire is satisfied.

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