Keir Starmer is due to discuss a New Deal For Young People scheme with EU officials in July, in talks that could shape access to living, working and studying abroad for younger Britons after Brexit. The plan is being discussed as a way to cut the barriers that grew after the referendum.
Amelia Jacobs, who was 16 at the time of the referendum, said, “Brexit is the single most impactful political decision on my life, and I had no say.” She said it affected her early working life, opportunities for movement and financial stability.
Amelia Jacobs and Brexit
Brexit removed UK and EU citizens’ rights to live, work, or study in each other's countries. That change left mobility less routine for young people and made it easier for those with family money to fund gap years, internships abroad and study overseas.
Sadiq Khan said that “it is the young people that have been hit the hardest” by the decision to leave the EU. The debate now is over whether a youth mobility scheme can reopen a route that used to be taken for granted without restoring the full rights that were lost.
2025 A-Levels
The pressure point is not only travel. In 2025, 882,500 A-Levels were taken in the UK, and less than 3 per cent were in foreign languages. That points to a generation that may have fewer language pathways into study and work abroad at the same time as the practical cost of going abroad has risen.
Andy Burnham said that they would like to see us “get back in with the EU,” and Wes Streeting said the same. Their comments place the youth mobility discussion inside a wider argument about how far the UK should rebuild links with the EU since Brexit.
July talks with EU
The immediate next step is Starmer’s July discussion with EU officials. If the scheme advances, the practical question for readers is whether it will lower bureaucracy and set financial requirements that are realistic enough for young people without wealthy parents to use it.
Amelia’s story is the clearest measure of the gap: at 16, she was dreaming of studying overseas 10 years ago, and the politics around Brexit still shape that choice now. A workable mobility scheme would matter most if it turns that lost route into something ordinary again.
