Starmer works on resetting UK-EU relationship with summit charm offensive

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wants closer ties on security, joint efforts to tackle illegal migration and smoother trading arrangements.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (right) and President of France Emmanuel Macron at the EPC summit (Hollie Adams/PA) (PA Wire)

European leaders can have a “renewed confidence” in their relationships with the UK, Sir Keir Starmer said, as he sought to build bridges after years of Brexit troubles.

The Prime Minister hosted leaders from across the continent, both EU members and non-EU states, at a major summit in Blenheim Palace.

He said the UK would be a “friend and a partner ready to work with you” and “not part of the European Union, but very much part of Europe”.

The European Political Community (EPC) summit, a fortnight after the general election, provided an early opportunity for Sir Keir to press ahead with efforts to build closer ties with Europe, particularly the European Union’s 27 members.

He wants to strike a security pact with the EU and address some of the trading problems under the current Brexit deal.

“We can only make progress on the issues that so many people care about, like illegal migration and national security, If we have the maturity and leadership to reach out a hand to our European friends,” he said.

He congratulated Ursula von der Leyen on her re-election as European Commission president, which could clear the way for future talks on the UK-EU relationship, and said: “We are going to deepen our co-operation on defence and security and on illegal migration.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Blenheim Palace (Carl Court/PA) (PA Wire)

Sir Keir added: “I’m really pleased that most of the leaders, if not all of them, are leaving here with a sense of renewed confidence in their relationship with the UK.”

A key sign of his desire to repair relations was a public commitment that he would “never withdraw” from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), after the Conservatives had flirted with the idea of pulling out of the agreement.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said: “The new Labour Government has signalled its intention to reset its relationship with the European Union and to seek more structured co-operation with the EU in the field of foreign, security and defence policies.

“We welcome the new tone of the British Government and we look forward to engaging with it. We are ready to reinforce our foreign and security policy co-operation.”

Ireland’s premier Simon Harris said Sir Keir Starmer’s election win could be a “gamechanger” for UK-EU relations.

He said: “You have a British Government that wants to actively talk about a closer relationship with Europe, the importance of multilateralism, staying within the ECHR, working closely with Ireland, talking about language around co-guarantor of the peace process.

“So it’s a very different landscape to the one we would have been discussing were we standing here only weeks ago.”

After the summit, Sir Keir will have a private dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron, who proposed the EPC to bring leaders together in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Before dinner, Sir Keir and the French leader took an early-evening stroll through Blenheim’s ornate water terraces, before a lengthy private conversation on a stone bench, well out of earshot of watching journalists.

During the summit he had a series of meetings with European leaders, including Poland’s Donald Tusk, who led the European Council at the height of the Brexit battles with the Conservatives, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez and Norway’s Jonas Store.