“It’s time to reset our relationship with our European friends and allies,” Lammy said.
That language was echoed on Friday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who told Starmer that she looked forward to meeting to discuss ways to “strengthen cooperation and reset the relationship” between the U.K. and EU, according to an EU read-out of a call between the two leaders.
Starmer himself told German chancellor Olaf Scholz he wanted “greater economic cooperation,” while a separate call with French President Emmanuel Macron covered “shared priorities, including migration and the economy.”
The quick move to rapprochement with Europe has spooked some Tory Euroskeptics. David Frost, the Conservative peer who negotiated Boris Johnson’s Brexit settlement, told the Mail on Sunday that “whatever Labour may have said before the election, we can expect them now to take every opportunity to start chipping away at our national independence.”
Those fears were exacerbated on Saturday, after the Germany foreign ministry posted on X: “We are working with the new U.K. government to see how the U.K. can move closer to the EU.”
During the U.K.’s six week general election, Conservative candidates including former Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch repeatedly attacked Labour’s ambitions for Europe, accusing the party of failing to explain what trade-offs it would be willing to make to secure its aims.
