“I kind of see you guys as the knot tying the transatlantic alliance together, the closer you are with Europe, the more you’re engaged,” Biden said at the start of his first meeting with the new British PM.
Downing Street was quick to seize the moment. Summarizing the bilateral summit, a U.K. government spokesperson stressed that “the president welcomed the prime minister’s recent comments on establishing closer relationships with our European counterparts.”
In private, No. 10 was delighted with Biden’s comments, taken as justification for how quickly the new Labour government is moving to change Britain’s foreign policy.
Starmer’s push to fundamentally shift the U.K. to a more Eurocentric position — including greater cooperation on defense and a renegotiation of Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade deal — was always part of Labour’s policy platform. But the swift pace at which the new PM is moving toward this goal has come as a surprise.
In opposition, Starmer often shied away from talking about Brexit, or the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU, stressing only that his government would not rejoin the single market or customs union.
The Labour leader was determined not to allow his election bid to become a row over relitigating Brexit, and was reluctant to remind people about his past calls for a second EU referendum.
