Sir Keir Starmer is poised to make a major intervention on the European Union within weeks, signalling a path to an even softer Brexit, The i Paper can reveal.
“Big, expansive, ambitious conversations” are also under way at the heart of Government about the UK’s future relationship with the EU, according to a Cabinet source.
Discussions have been taking place in Whitehall for weeks on a potential major speech from the Prime Minister to flesh out the case for his Brexit reset, which could happen as soon as this month, according to a Government insider. However, nothing is firmly set in stone.
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Four key takeaways from Starmer’s antisemitism summit
Iran’s attempts to incite antisemitism in the UK “will not
be tolerated”, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said.
Here are the main points from
the Downing Street summit.
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 5: Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a meeting with civic leaders to discuss tackling antisemitism at Downing Street on May 5, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Hannah McKay – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Photographer: WPA Pool
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Key takeaways
1Starmer said one of the lines of inquiry is whether a foreign state is behind the attacks.
2He announced £1.5m funding to strengthen community cohesion and protect Jews in at-risk areas.
3Ministers are “fast-tracking legislation” allowing them to ban state threats such as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
4Universities must publish the scale of antisemitism on campus and show how they are tackling it.
Go deeper on this topic
The measures to protect the Jewish community come after the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green and a series of attacks at synagogues and other sites in recent months.
Starmer has faced criticism that he has not done enough to keep the community safe, and was heckled during a visit to the north London suburb on Thursday.
Caption: TOPSHOT – Local residents look on from outside a cordoned off area in the Golders Green neighbourhood of north London on April 29, 2026, following the stabbing to two people nearby. Two people were stabbed on April 29 in north London, Jewish groups said, following a series of arson attacks targeting Jewish sites in the area. A man was arrested after he was seen running with a knife “attempting to stab Jewish members of the public”, the Shomrim Jewish neighbourhood watch said on social media. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: JUSTIN TALLIS
Provider: AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
Copyright: AFP or licensors
NEWS
7 min read
Starmer’s message to Iran
One of the lines of inquiry is whether a foreign state has been behind some of these incidents…Our message to Iran, or to any other country that might seek to foment violence, hatred or division in society, is that it will not be tolerated.
SiR KEIR STARMER, PRIME MINISTER
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 30: Prime Minister Keir Starmer (C) and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood (CR) meet members of Shomrim, the Jewish community security organisation, in Golders Green following yesterday’s attack on April 30, 2026 in Golders Green, England. A 45-year-old British-Somali man was arrested yesterday, after stabbing two Jewish men, Shloime Rand and Moshe Shine, in a terrorist attack in Golders Green. Both victims are in a stable condition, and the suspect was caught by police after being tasered. The government has since pledged ??25 million to improve security for the Jewish community following the incident. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Photographer: Leon Neal
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Co-op is confident it’s stores will be ‘back to normal’ within days (Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters)
NEWS
The supermarket using invisible spray to combat shoplifting
Co-op has been secretly marking frequently shoplifted groceries with a special forensic spray to tackle the resale of stolen goods.
Here’s how the invisible spray works, and how the company hopes it will make shoplifting less profitable.
What’s the story?
Co-op has been marking items with an invisible spray that contains a unique forensic code linked to the shop where it was originally sold, according to Retail Gazette.
Retail theft on the increase – woman stealing in UK supermarket. (Photo:
Andrey Popov/Getty Images
Copyright: Copyright (C) Andrey Popov
Caption: A shopper walks along an aisle inside a Tesco supermarket in Manchester, Britain, February 5, 2026 REUTERS/Phil Noble
Photographer: Phil Noble
Provider: REUTERS
Source: REUTERS
Co-op has invested £250m in store security, including body-worn cameras for staff, reinforced kiosks for items such as spirits and tobacco, and shelf fixtures designed to stop thieves sweeping products into bags.
How does the scheme work?
Where?
The scheme has been trialled in Manchester and London and will be rolled out across the UK.
Which items?
High-risk items such as alcohol, laundry detergent and confectionary have been sprayed.
Why?
The aim is to help Co-op and the police identify where stolen products are being resold, making theft less profitable.
NEWS
2 min read
Photographer: skaman306
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Copyright: TEERAYUT CHAISARN
HEALTH
The inflatable ‘gentle’ forceps for childbirth
More than 300 babies have been born with inflatable forceps, the first breakthrough in childbirth assistance in decades.
It is hoped that the device, called the OdonAssist, could reduce birth trauma. It will be rolled out to 40 hospitals across Britain and Europe.
How new forceps could revolutionise childbirth
Around one in eight people will have an assisted vaginal birth using forceps or vacuum extraction.
Women may have bleeding or tears and marks can be left on the baby.
Inflatable forceps work by surrounding the baby’s head with a soft air cuff, allowing doctors to help remove it more gently.
In trials, patients reported no or low pain in more than 95 per cent of births where OdonAssist was used.
Analysis
5 min read
How ‘gentle’ forceps were invented
From a prototype using a jar and a doll to development by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The OdonAssist was thought up by a mechanic in Argentina in 2006 called Jorge Odón.
He created the first prototype using a jar, a cloth and his daughter’s doll.
It was then taken up by Mario Merialdi, of the WHO, who refined the idea for clinical use.
It was created by Maternal Newborn Health Innovations, a public benefit corporation to help reduce avoidable pain.
Any speech would be viewed as a response to the rising pressure Starmer could face over Brexit, as the Labour Party deals with the expected fallout of local election losses, particularly to the Greens, and with how to reunite the party’s centre-left voter coalition.
Despite wider Cabinet discussions on the long-term future of the EU relationship and whether the Prime Minister needs to adopt a radically more pro-Brussels stance, his possible intervention is likely to focus on his existing strategy and, potentially, on expanding proposals for greater alignment with the single market.
Starmer would likely set out the trade-offs inherent in the reset. The UK is currently negotiating with the EU to follow Brussels’ rules on food and drink trade, electricity and carbon taxes in return for single market access. He may also argue that while there will be winners and losers, his approach will be good for the British economy and businesses.
It comes with the EU demanding the UK regularly pays into the Brussels budget as the price of single market access, with some estimates suggesting this could be around £1bn a year, and asking Starmer for a youth mobility deal to allow under-30s to move more freely between both sides with no hard cap on numbers and lower university tuition fees for Europeans in Britain.
Starmer may also use any speech to unveil more details on how the UK wants to go further in aligning with EU rules across more economic sectors – with industry pushing for chemicals, cars and pharmaceuticals – to secure single market access for more British businesses than those covered by the food and energy deals.
Officials in the Cabinet Office have for months been working up a plan for further alignment, an approach endorsed by Rachel Reeves in March when she cited a study suggesting Brexit had caused an 8 per cent hit to the economy.
But the likelihood of Starmer announcing more details would depend on whether these new ambitions have been discussed with Brussels in advance and on their response.
The Government is understood to be eyeing up a number of “quick wins” as part of a new offering to the electorate. Regulatory reform is one area the Government has been keen to implement in order to boost growth.
Starmer sticking to Brexit ‘red lines’
There are growing discussions at the highest levels of the Labour Party about whether a new ambition is needed, particularly in light of dire poll ratings, but Starmer will stick to his red lines: that the UK will not rejoin the single market or the customs union, or return to free movement of people under his Government.
Nevertheless, there are discussions under way at the heart of Government about the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU following calls by senior Labour figures and business leaders to rejoin the bloc.
One Cabinet minister said: “None of the red lines in the manifesto [on this issue] are about to be ripped up, but if you are asking whether there are big conversations going on about where the country might be in 10 or 15 years’ time, then the answer is yes.
“You cannot drive a car on a journey with every twist and turn and expect to end up at a particular destination unless you know what that destination is.”
EU won’t give ‘something for nothing’
Appearing to break with the strategy to ride “three horses” regarding trade ties with the US, the EU and China, the Cabinet source added that there is an acknowledgement that the “primary” relationship for the UK was with Brussels.
However, they also said that the Government was not “naive” enough to think the EU would give the UK “something for nothing” and that it would take “time to negotiate change”.
Meanwhile, a Government source warned they were expecting critics of the Prime Minister to reach for the “easy option” of pushing for closer EU ties after the local elections, but that demands may not be “realistic or deliverable”, and may not win back Green voters who have deserted the party over issues like migration and Gaza.
Senior Labour figures have told The i Paper that any policy reset, which is expected in the days following the local election results, must include looking at rejoining the EU. A recent YouGov poll suggested this would be backed by 53 per cent of the public, with only 32 per cent opposed and a vast majority of Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat voters favouring a reversal of Brexit.
One source said: “One of the only things that would help us rebuild the economy and the kind of coalition we would need to win the next election would be a promise to hold another vote on whether to rejoin the EU.”
‘Rejoining EU won’t fix all of the country’s problems’
It is understood that several Cabinet ministers back former Labour leader Lord Kinnock’s view that Brexit has inflicted “serious harm” on Britain.
However, Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary, cautioned against thinking that rejoining the EU would fix all the country’s problems.
He told The i Paper: “During the Brexit era, Brexiteers blamed every problem on the EU. We should not fall into the same trap and think that all our problems will be solved by rejoining the EU.”
Any leadership debate likely to be ‘dominated’ by EU pledges
Brexit expert Anand Menon said any leadership contest to replace Starmer is likely to be “dominated” by pledges to get closer to the EU “because that is where the [party] members are” who will potentially decide the new leader.
Meanwhile, the Labour Movement for Europe (LME), a grouping of dozens of MPs, is to launch a bid to amend the Brexit bill to be announced in the King’s Speech next week.
It is understood that the LME is planning to push for amendments to the bill to boost British workers’ rights by adopting a narrow set of EU regulations and to bolster MPs’ power to oversee the reset in Parliament, likely through a new select committee.
LME chair and Labour MP Stella Creasy told The i Paper: “Both the public and parliamentarians have not been part of the reset, that has to change.”
Tom Brufatto, policy director at the pro-EU Best for Britain campaign group, said the logic of Starmer’s Brexit reset approach would inevitably lead to a discussion on rejoining.
“Ultimately, it gets tougher from now on: the incrementalist approach will be running its course and that means that you are going to have to look at the red lines,” he told The i Paper.
“When you do, advocating for a customs union or single market, or a version of Switzerland, is not really going to work for you, your party or the country, because you won’t be able to carry the persuadable middle [of voters] with you.
“If you look at the red lines, which is what you’re going to have to do, you need to push for the UK’s full EU membership, because that’s how the public actually comes out and thanks you for it.”
The mooted EU speech from Starmer will come after the Prime Minister’s planned major policy speech next week, which is likely to focus on regulatory reform and boosting the economy.