British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is seeking to reset relations at
home and abroad.
During a visit
on Sunday (July 7) to Edinburgh, that he billed as an “immediate reset” with
the regional governments of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, Starmer said
he would also seek to improve the U.K.'s “botched” trade deal with the European
Union.
“I do think
that we can get a much better deal than the botched deal that (former Prime
Minister) Boris Johnson saddled the U.K. with,” he said in reference to the
pact negotiated after Brexit.
Starmer said
there were many discussions ahead to strengthen trading, research and defense
ties with the EU. But he said those talks had begun as his top diplomat made
his first visit abroad to Germany, Poland and Sweden.
With two of
Starmer’s ministers in Europe ahead of a NATO meeting next week, the premier
made a point of visiting the leaders of the regional governments in the U.K.
following his party’s landslide victory last week.
Starmer, who said he has a
“mandate to do politics differently,” met with Scottish First Minister John Swinney in an effort to “turn disagreement into cooperation.”
“We will serve every single person in
Scotland,” Starmer told a group of enthusiastic supporters. “Performance,
self-interest: they’re the politics of the past. The politics of this Labour
government of 2024 is about public service, restoring standards of making sure
that we always, always have in our mind’s eye the people who elected us into
government.”
While each of the devolved nations in
the U.K. elects members to the House of Commons in London, they also have their
own regional parliaments.
Starmer’s
Labour Party trounced Swinney’s Scottish National Party for seats in
Parliament. But the SNP, which has pushed for Scottish independence, still
holds a majority at Holyrood, the Scottish parliament.
Swinney said
after meeting the prime minister that he believed there’s an opportunity to
work together to make a difference for the Scottish people.
The trip to build better working
relations across the U.K. comes as Starmer’s government faces a mountain of
problems.
The Labour
government inherited a wobbly economy that left Britons struggling to pay bills
after global economic woes and fiscal missteps. It also faces a public
disenchanted after 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule and fiscal austerity
that hollowed out public services, including the revered National Health
Service, which Starmer has declared broken.
Starmer said
he wants to transfer power from the bureaucratic halls of government in London
to leaders who know what’s best for their communities.
After his
two-day tour, he’ll return to England, where he plans to meet with regional
mayors, saying he would engage with politicians regardless of their party.
“There’s no
monopoly on good ideas,” he said “I’m not a tribal political.”
Starmer
continued to speak with other world leaders, having separate calls with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
He spoke with both about his
priorities for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, the return
of hostages to Israel, and an increase in humanitarian aid, a spokesperson
said.
He told Abbas
that the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process was the
“undeniable right of Palestinians” and told Netanyahu it was important to
ensure the long-term conditions for a two-state solution, including ensuring
financial means for Abbas’ Palestinian Authority to operate effectively.
Labour’s
initial refusal to call for a ceasefire last year is blamed for costing it
support and some seats in Thursday’s election.
In advance of
Starmer’s attendance Tuesday at a NATO meeting in Washington, Foreign
Secretary David Lammy reiterated an “unshakeable” commitment to the alliance
during his first trip abroad.
Lammy said
that the U.K. government would tighten relations with the European Union and
remains “ironclad” in its support for Ukraine.
“European
security will be this government’s foreign and defense priority,” Lammy said in
Poland. “Russia’s barbaric invasion has made clear the need for us to do more
to strengthen our own defenses.”
However, Lammy reiterated Starmer’s
pledge not to rejoin the EU single market after British voters in 2016 voted to
break from the political and economic union.
“Let us put
the Brexit years behind us,” Lammy told The Observer. “We are not going to
rejoin the single market and the customs union but there is much that we can do
together.”
Business
Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Sunday on Sky News that the U.K. should look
for ways to improve trade with the EU and that removing some trade barriers was
sensible.
But he said
the Labour government was not open to the free movement of people that was
required as a member of the union.
Meanwhile,
Defense Secretary John Healey met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
in Odessa and said the U.K. would provide a new package of support to Ukraine,
including more artillery guns and nearly 100 Brimstone missiles.
Healey also
said he would make sure the remaining military commitments to Ukraine by the
previous government would be delivered within 100 days.