Starmer’s recent Armenia trip has come under fire from the Tory shadow cabinet.
Want LBC stories before everyone else? Set us as your Preferred Source on Google
Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for pursuing a UK reset with Brussels at an EU summit in Armenia.
The Prime Minister announced the UK’s bid to join a Ukraine loan initiative at a gathering of European leaders in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Monday. The UK’s contribution could reach up to £400 million.
He was also using the trip to continue his push for closer ties with the bloc on defence, security and the economy, and to make the case for his reset with Brussels to UK voters ahead of local elections this week. Sir Keir hoped to pursue his calls for “deeper economic integration” with Europe and to align the UK with the single market in areas “where that would work for both sides” at the summit.
However, the trip has come under fire from Conservative shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel for “unpicking Brexit and planning another undemocratic hit job on British taxpayers by signing us up to a £1bn annual payment to the EU”.
European Union negotiators have insisted the UK will have to make annual payments into European budgets for the first time since Brexit if Starmer wants to secure his reset with Brussels.
Speaking to media as he arrived at the European Political Community (EPC) summit, Sir Keir said: “In relation to the EU loan that we are discussing participating in, that is very good for Ukraine, because it will give Ukraine the capability that it desperately needs in year five of this conflict.
“It’s very good for the UK because of the capability that leads to jobs in the United Kingdom.
“And it’s very good for UK-EU relations, which is very important as we go on to the various discussions.”
Read more: Merz insists the US ‘is and will remain Germany‘s most important partner’
Read more: US will ‘help free up’ ships stuck in Strait of Hormuz, says Trump
The shadow foreign secretary has slammed Starmer for his Brexit reset.
Picture:
Getty
The European Council has called for countries hoping to access the single market to make an “appropriate financial contribution”. It said in the UK’s case that this should “appropriately reflect the relative size of the UK’s economy and the proportion of the internal market in which the UK aims to participate”.
Sir Keir said it was “vital” to work with other international leaders at the event on ending the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, which were affecting “every single household” in the UK including by driving up energy prices.
Sir Keir and French President Emmanuel Macron also co-chaired a meeting on Ukraine.
Attendees included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Poland’s premier Donald Tusk, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Nato chief Mark Rutte, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and vice president Kaja Kallas, and European Council president Antonio Costa.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the first leader of a non-European country to attend the EPC, also participated.
Sir Keir told allies that Britain wants to work more closely with them to ensure Kyiv gets the military equipment it needs to continue its fight against Russia.
The UK will also impose further sanctions on Russian companies later this week in a bid to disrupt military supply chains, according to Downing Street.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Picture:
Ludovic MARIN / AFP via Getty Images
The loan initiative – recently approved by the EU after Viktor Orban’s defeat in Hungarian elections ended a long-running impasse – could create opportunities for British defence firms to compete for contracts in return for a financial contribution from the UK which could reportedly reach up to £400 million.
It is understood that the payments will be determined by the value of contracts and will come from the UK’s ringfenced £3 billion for Ukraine.
Following a meeting with Mr Zelenskyy after arriving in Armenia on Sunday, Sir Keir held private talks with Mr Macron and Mr Rutte on Monday, and is expected to have further bilateral meetings in the margins of the EPC summit.
He was accompanied to Yerevan by EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds and national security adviser Jonathan Powell.
Before the gathering, Sir Keir called for the UK and the EU to “go further and faster on defence” co-operation.
He wrote in The Observer that Brexit had “damaged our economy” and strengthening economic links with the continent was key to recovery.
The UK and EU, which will hold another joint summit this summer, will negotiate the parameters of access to the bloc’s loan for Ukraine in the coming weeks, No 10 said.
Brussels is pushing for Britain to agree to pay around £1 billion a year before detailed talks on further access to the single market, according to The Times.
The Government said it did not recognise the reporting, with a spokesperson saying: “We won’t comment on ongoing negotiations.”
Under plans to be unveiled in the King’s Speech, which have been criticised by the Tories and Reform UK, the Government will seek legislation to follow EU single market rules without necessarily giving MPs a vote on each piece of red tape.