Keir Starmer has vowed to turn the page on the UK’s relationship with the EU, despite differences with Brussels over proposals for a European youth mobility scheme.
The prime minister said: “Of course, there will be challenges” in resetting relations but insisted he was “turning the page on the old way of doing these negotiations” in favour of a more “constructive” approach.
He was speaking during a trip to Brussels where he had his first bilateral meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, on Wednesday.
There has been frustration in Brussels over the perceived delay in the meeting taking place and the Labour government’s apparent intransigence over a youth mobility deal with the EU.
EU countries want to broker an arrangement where young people from the bloc can live and work in the UK for a fixed period of time and vice versa. UK ministers are concerned this would be perceived as a return to freedom of movement with the EU, with Starmer telling reporters that his position hadn’t changed and that “free movement is a red line”.
Diplomats and politicians told the Guardian this week that opening discussions on a youth mobility scheme was a precondition for agreement in other areas, such as defence and security.
David McAllister, a German centre-right MEP and ally of von der Leyen’s, said he hoped Starmer would be open to an EU-UK youth mobility agreement, adding: “In the end, the UK government will also have to be judged on its willingness to compromise on this issue with regard to other areas of negotiation.”
One of the early goals that is being sought by both the UK and EU is a new security and foreign policy pact, but EU officials cautioned they are waiting for detailed plans on what London wants on all aspects of the relationship.
“It is really in Starmer’s hands,” an EU diplomat said. “We would like to normalise further, but we are not going to beg you.” The diplomat argued that the Labour government was “still very uneasy to embrace the new relationship with the EU because they are afraid” of being criticised by the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, and the Conservatives.
Others were more optimistic. “There has been a lot of animosity and this [meeting] kind of feels like back to normal,” said a second diplomat.
Starmer told reporters after the meeting: “Tone does matter. Resetting does matter. That has been a very important part of the message that I have carried into the meeting today. A return to pragmatism, to doing business in a respectful way and in a way which, I think, will focus on deliverables, rather than charging to the nearest camera to use a megaphone.”
Nick Harvey, chief executive of European Movement UK, said: “Dismissing the idea of reciprocal youth mobility simply means letting down British young people, who face all sorts of economic difficulties and have seen their horizons curtailed by Brexit.”
Starmer and von der Leyen agreed to step up cooperation by meeting again this autumn and holding regular EU-UK leaders’ summits starting early next year.
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In a joint statement, the two leaders said they would pursue an “agenda of strengthened cooperation at pace over the coming months”.
They resolved to work closely on “wider global challenges including economic headwinds, geopolitical competition, irregular migration, climate change and energy prices”.
Valérie Hayer, the leader of the centrist Renew group in the European parliament and ally of French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Starmer’s visit to Brussels was a positive thing. “A new EU-UK security pact would send a powerful message of unity to those working against the interests and values of Europeans,” she said.
Starmer and von der Leyen discussed the events in the Middle East and condemned the “egregious attack” by Iran on Israel on Tuesday night. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had launched ballistic missiles in retaliation for Israeli attacks that killed the leaders of the Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups, as well as a senior Iranian commander.
Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli defences, with support from its allies, including the US and UK.
Starmer and von der Leyen said de-escalation in the region was “of the utmost importance” and called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza.