Throughout Keir Starmer’s life, a recent fawning profile ran, he has ‘worked to safeguard the value of justice and democracy’, from fighting the death penalty in Caribbean courts as a young human-rights lawyer, to taking on Vladimir Putin by representing Alexander Litvinenko’s widow. ‘Those same principles,’ the profile gushes, ‘have guided him since he became the UK’s Prime Minister.’
The author of these words? Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, who had the dubious honour of penning the Prime Minister’s entry for Time’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people. She is glad, she claims, ‘to have someone with Starmer’s dedication and strong principles as a partner’.
On 19 May, Starmer will host the first UK-EU summit since Brexit. An announcement is expected on defence cooperation, alongside an outline for future negotiations. Labour’s manifesto promised to ‘reset the relationship between Britain and the EU’ and ‘deepen ties with our European friends’. This is one area in which the Prime Minister has kept his promise to the electorate.
A few short years ago, Starmer was Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary, pushing Labour into backing a second referendum. After voters rejected that, his Europhilia faded as he sought to win back the Red Wall. But few doubt he still believes that Brexit was an act of national self-harm.
Starmer’s hope is that he can overcome lingering resentment and improve post-Brexit arrangements as the perfidious Tories never could. Yet his hand across the Channel so far seems less a drawing together of two equal, sovereign allies than the steady unpicking of our hard-won independence.
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