Since 2016, Britain’s Conservative party has likened the European Union to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, called comments from EU officials “bizarre and stupid,” and warned that unilaterally rewriting the Brexit agreement would violate international law, so the new Labour government won’t need to do much to strike a different tone.
But while the EU is prepared to deepen ties with the future Labour government widely expected to take power after July 4, it is unlikely to make radical concessions to Keir Starmer. EU sources have already welcomed warmer relations under Rishi Sunak, but are watching the changing political situation across the Channel cautiously.
Officials see potential for improved relations with Britain under Starmer’s government but say any deal – on facilitating trade in fresh food, student exchanges and the movement of young people – would require Britain to accept “rules and responsibilities”.
“If the UK wants a more positive relationship, we’ll be open to it,” one EU diplomat said, noting that closer ties have been proposed to successive Conservative governments. “There’s a lot of potential in terms of a closer relationship, but that’s always possible, and of course there will be responsibilities and rules on the UK side.”
Terry Reintke, a member of the European Parliament for Germany’s Green Party and his party’s co-top candidate in the European Parliament elections, said he hoped the change in government would bring about a more positive relationship. “I think there are many areas in which we need to cooperate more closely, the most obvious example being foreign and security policy,” Reintke said in an interview in his Brussels office, where on a wall hangs a scarf that the EU and UK exchanged during the emotional final parliamentary session attended by British lawmakers in 2020. “The war in Ukraine has made it even more clear that we have to cooperate closely as allies.”
The Green MEP, who studied on the Erasmus exchange at Edinburgh University, said she hoped the election would lead to a less polarised Britain. She said recent Conservative governments had demonstrated “senseless hostility towards the EU”. [that] “It was really an act of undignified dignity for this old Tory party.”
Brussels officials stress that relations between the EU and the UK have already improved dramatically under Sunak, since he signed the Windsor Treaty, ending the years of dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“As we see it, there is often a perception in the UK that the EU has offered the Conservatives a bad deal because they have been very reluctant. I don’t think that’s the case,” the diplomat said. “It has everything to do with the UK government’s position and nothing to do with UK government policy.”
And yet, while the EU is grappling with internal disputes over aid to Ukraine, tensions with China, and upcoming EU elections, Britain is far from a priority. A second EU diplomat warned against overestimating the importance of British politics: “There’s no sense of, ‘Yes, a Labour government is coming in,’ because we got on very well with the previous Conservative government for the last year and a half. And the EU-UK relationship doesn’t occupy as much mental space in our minds as it did a few years ago.”
“If a Labour government comes to us with ideas, credible proposals – and I can’t stress the word ‘credible’ too much – we would be happy to have those conversations and to consider them,” the diplomat said.
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Under Starmer, Labour has ruled out rejoining the single market or customs union, let alone joining the EU as a whole. Instead, it says it wants to cut trade barriers and strike an EU-UK security agreement. Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said last month that Labour wants a “new geopolitical partnership” with the EU.
“At the heart of this relationship should be a security agreement that promotes close cooperation on a range of issues, including military, economic, climate, health, cyber and energy security, and complements our two countries’ unwavering commitments to NATO,” Lamy said. He wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine.
If successful, Starmer’s government could quickly showcase its new approach when it hosts a European Political Community summit for more than 40 countries at Blenheim Palace on July 18. “We’ve noticed some attempts by the UK to move closer to the EU and become a stronger geopolitical actor,” said a third diplomat.[The] The European Political Community summit will be an important platform for the UK to demonstrate that it wants to make a difference.”
Despite these good intentions, Labour could soon find itself in a difficult position, as evidenced by the European Commission’s recent surprising proposals on youth mobility: Labour and the government were quick to reject a post-Brexit deal that would have allowed 18-30 year-olds to live, study and work on both sides of the Channel for up to four years.
The European Commission’s proposals will be a tough challenge for a cash-strapped UK government under strict public spending limits. Under a youth mobility pact, the Commission said EU students should pay the same tuition fees as their UK counterparts at UK universities and the NHS surcharge should be waived for all scheme members. Both measures would be costly, showing that improving ties with the EU will involve trade-offs for any government, Conservative or Labour.
“It would be great if a Starmer government were to come to power and have the will and ability to work more closely with the EU,” one EU diplomat said. “But willingness and ability means the EU can make the compromises necessary to have a positive, close relationship and sell that to itself. So we’ll just have to wait and see.”
