{"id":952001,"date":"2026-05-11T06:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/952001\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T06:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:04:16","slug":"today-starmer-will-vow-to-put-britain-at-the-heart-of-europe-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/952001\/","title":{"rendered":"Today Starmer will vow to put Britain ‘at the heart of Europe’ | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A desperate attempt to rescue his premiership will see Sir Keir Starmer take to the stage on Monday with a pledge to anchor Britain more firmly within Europe’s orbit \u2014 as his party reels from its worst local election performance<\/a> in modern history.<\/p>\n

With over 40 of his own MPs calling for him to go and a formal leadership challenge from Catherine West expected in the coming hours, Sir Keir will stake his future on a message of closer European engagement<\/a>, warning the country that “incremental change won’t cut it.”<\/p>\n

Sir Keir will say: “This Labour Government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship and by putting Britain at the heart of Europe. So that we are stronger on the economy, on trade, on defence, you name it. Because standing shoulder to shoulder with the countries that most share our interests, our values and our enemies \u2014 that is the right choice for Britain, that is the Labour choice.”<\/p>\n

For many Labour MPs the address represents a final opportunity to be persuaded their leader can turn things around \u2014 but expectations are being carefully managed. The speech is understood to avoid major policy announcements, and some allies privately worry the volume of pre-speech briefing has set a bar Sir Keir may struggle to clear.<\/p>\n

Rather than offering a single dramatic moment, Downing Street is reportedly framing the speech as the opening chapter of a sustained recovery effort, with the King’s Speech on Wednesday intended to maintain the momentum.<\/p>\n

What has Keir Starmer already done to strengthen EU ties?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year’s EU reset deal – which gave European fishing vessels 12-year access to British waters and brought Britain back into the Erasmus scheme – marked the first major step in Sir Keir’s European realignment. He is now pushing for a further step, telling interviewers at the weekend that negotiations on a youth mobility scheme were approaching conclusion.<\/p>\n

In his Monday address, the Telegraph reports Sir Keir will claim Nigel Farage<\/a>‘s Reform UK and Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party were “defined by breaking our relationship with Europe.”<\/p>\n

Cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson moved on Sunday to draw a clear line, reaffirming that the Government had no intention of rejoining the EU, the customs union or the single market.<\/p>\n

How has Labour’s Red Wall reacted to the EU reset plan?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The European pitch has gone down badly with Labour MPs from traditionally working-class constituencies recaptured in 2024 \u2014 the same areas where Reform inflicted its heaviest damage on Thursday, echoing the Conservatives<\/a>‘ 2019 breakthrough in Leave-heartland seats.<\/p>\n

Pendle and Clitheroe MP Jonathan Hinder led the pushback, accusing rejoin advocates of being utterly out of touch with the communities Labour had just lost.<\/p>\n

Responding to former Lammy adviser Ben Judah’s claim that Labour must campaign to rejoin at the next general election, Hinder said: “Look at the results in Wigan, Sunderland, Grimsby, St Helens and Hartlepool. And this is the response? Utter contempt for working-class people. These people are destroying Labour.”<\/p>\n

Jo Platt, MP for Leigh and Atherton, added: “Going back to the debate of rejoining the EU just drags us back to the old arguments that split communities in half in the first place. Is it really too much to ask for our leaders to focus on fixing the mess we’re in now?”<\/p>\n

The Greens, who back EU membership, added hundreds of councillors \u2014 but the dominant story of the night was Reform’s capture of more than 1,300 seats, the bulk of them stripped directly from Labour’s historic strongholds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A desperate attempt to rescue his premiership will see Sir Keir Starmer take to the stage on Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,265636,1699,4884,807,528,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-952001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-engagement","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-labour-party","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116554436925060402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}