In a move that has reignited the debate over Britain’s post-Brexit future, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has thrown her weight behind an ambitious youth mobility scheme designed to let young people from the UK and the European Union live, work, and study across borders for up to two years. The proposal, which echoes similar agreements with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, has quickly become a flashpoint in the country’s ongoing struggle to balance economic recovery, migration control, and the lingering pains of Brexit.
Speaking to The Times ahead of the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool, Reeves outlined her vision: “We have agreed as a government that we want to have an ambitious youth experience scheme to allow young people in Britain to be able to go and work, to travel, to volunteer, to gain experience, to learn languages in European countries. And we want young people from those European countries to also be able to come to the UK and have the same opportunities that my generation had to travel and work and study in Europe.”
The plan, if realized, would allow individuals aged 18 to 30 to obtain temporary visas—lasting up to two years—to live and work in the host country. However, there’s a catch: participants would not gain the right to stay permanently. The scheme would initially be capped at fewer than 50,000 people per year, a figure well below the numbers floated by some critics. And despite the ambitions, the earliest it could be formalized and implemented is 2027, as reported by ITV News.
For Reeves and her supporters, the scheme is more than just a nod to nostalgia for the days of easy European travel. It’s part of a broader strategy to boost economic growth, address acute labor shortages—particularly in the hospitality sector—and, perhaps most importantly, demonstrate that Labour can reset the UK’s relationship with the EU without reopening the door to full freedom of movement. “We also want the OBR to score that because when we left the European Union, the OBR said that our economy would be 4 per cent smaller as a result. As a result of that reset in May, we think the economy will be stronger,” Reeves told The Times.
Yet, the economic impact of the scheme is hotly contested. According to ITV News, forecasters are skeptical. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which recently downgraded the UK’s productivity outlook—leading to a £30 billion budget black hole—may only score the scheme as having a “tiny bit positive” effect. Some economists warn that an influx of cheap labor can actually dampen productivity, as businesses may opt for more workers rather than investing in capital improvements. The Chancellor’s fiscal headache, driven by the OBR’s pessimism about productivity, remains largely unaddressed by the youth mobility plan.
Nevertheless, the social and political stakes are high. Businesses, especially those in hospitality, are likely to welcome the move. Since Brexit, the UK has seen a notable shortage of workers in restaurants, bars, and even among au pairs—a gap the new scheme aims to narrow. The proposal has even earned the nickname “restaurant and bar visa” in some circles, a nod to the practical needs of the post-Brexit labor market, as The Independent notes.
But not everyone is on board. Critics from the right, including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, have slammed the scheme as a “back door to free movement.” Farage and his allies argue that any arrangement resembling pre-Brexit mobility undermines the referendum’s mandate and could exacerbate concerns over immigration. “When the Chancellor is reduced to begging the OBR to score a yet to be clarified youth mobility scheme, to scrabble together a few hundred million at best, it shows just how desperate things have become,” said shadow Tory chancellor Sir Mel Stride, as quoted by The Independent. “Britain faces a massive fiscal black hole of Rachel Reeves’ own making. No amount of creative accounting can cover for the fact that her reckless borrowing has put us in this position.”
Reeves, for her part, has tried to reassure skeptics. She has consistently emphasized that the scheme would not mean a return to freedom of movement or a rise in net migration. “We’re going to bring down net migration and we aren’t going to return to freedom of movement. We do want to see better trading relationships between our countries and we do want to enable young people from Europe and the UK to be able to work and travel overseas. But we’ve got to get the balance right, because I do not want to see net migration increasing. I want to see net migration falling,” she told The Times.
Public opinion, meanwhile, appears to be firmly in favor. A YouGov poll in August, cited by The Independent, found that 76% of respondents support the youth mobility scheme, including 55% of voters for Reform UK—the very party most associated with Brexit. Only 13% opposed the plan. Even among those who blame Brexit for the country’s current direction—61% of Labour voters who think the UK is on the wrong track cite Brexit as the cause—there is strong support for restoring at least some cross-border opportunities for young people.
The scheme’s design borrows heavily from existing programs with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Applicants would need to show savings of at least £2,530, and the arrangement would be strictly time-limited. The focus, according to Reeves, is on giving young people the chance to gain experience, learn languages, and build cross-cultural ties—opportunities that many in her generation took for granted before Brexit.
Still, the political landscape is fraught. On the eve of Labour’s conference, a fresh poll reported by ITV News showed that two-thirds of the public believe Labour has failed to meet expectations since coming to power, with the cost-of-living crisis and immigration topping voters’ concerns. The same survey put Reform UK ahead of Labour in voter support—a warning sign that the debate over migration and Brexit is far from settled.
Tom Brufatto, director of policy at the pro-EU Best for Britain, argues that the scheme offers a way forward: “A deal on youth mobility creates new opportunities for young UK and EU citizens alike, as first proposed by the UK Trade and Business Commission in 2021, and, as Best for Britain’s polling found earlier this year, is favoured in every constituency in Great Britain.”
As the details of the youth mobility scheme continue to be hammered out, one thing is clear: the plan is about more than visas or economic forecasts. It’s a test of whether Britain can reconcile its desire for global engagement with the promises—and pitfalls—of Brexit. The coming months will reveal whether Reeves’ gamble pays off, both for the country’s young people and its political leadership.
