Keir Starmer's Brexit reset restores Britain's place in Europe with pragmatism, not ideology

Independent

19-05-2025

Reset' as a mission statement may not have the majesty or power of 'ever-closer union', 'taking back control' or even 'community', but there should be no doubting the portent of what Sir Keir Starmer has achieved with his long-promised and modestly termed Brexit reset, nor what it portends for his personal reputation. The new EU-UK 'Common Understanding' may even prove historic.
Clearly, in diplomacy at least, Sir Keir has grown into his role impressively.
From his unlikely friendship with Donald Trump to co-leading the international ' coalition of the willing ' on Ukraine, he has continued the process of restoring global respect for Britain, tentatively begun by Rishi Sunak – and with much more promise for the future.
Unlike Mr Sunak, Sir Keir has no noisy factions to placate in his party, and he can get on with the job – and has done so with astonishing speed.
Banished now are the days of Boris Johnson's schoolboy jokes and the asinine quips of Liz Truss, let alone Nigel Farage's gratuitously offensive behaviour in the European parliament.
To use one of Sir Keir's favourite phrases, he is a grown-up dealing with other grown-ups. That counts for a surprising amount around the world.
There are, and will remain, many arguments about the balance of advantage in the reset relationship.
Fish, for example, is probably a 'win' for the EU, but not one that needs to be exaggerated, given that the British have little taste for the species that are most abundant in their territorial waters, and that fisheries are such a tiny proportion of the UK national income.
Far more significant, for example, is food production – including fresh and processed fish products – which may now be sold once again into a convenient and lucrative market. Once again, the finest Scottish and English shellfish may be enjoyed in fashionable Parisian restaurants.
Much the same goes for gains awaiting Britain's large defence sector, which was about to be excluded from the sizeable new European Defence Investment Programme.
Even if it means a UK financial contribution to the fund, as with the other participants, it should serve British industry well.
It seems sensible to codify the new, evolving policy of industrial and military cooperation if the UK is to defend its interests in Europe, and European nations are to benefit from engagement in the Trump era.
There's also the prospect of lower energy bills, thanks to adjustments in the taxation regime for cross-border sales. Even Gibraltar may get sorted out.
Smaller, but highly tangible 'wins' for the UK are new passport arrangements at e-gates, and the reciprocal youth mobility or 'experience' scheme, plus rejoining an enhanced 'Erasmus Plus' project.
As some of the more realistic Brexiteers remarked during the long debates about Brexit, Britain cannot be towed halfway across the Atlantic Ocean and will always be European – its interests are tightly knit with continental Europe, with a shared history, culture and common democratic values.
The immediate impact of the reset is to demonstrate that Britain's relationship with Europe does not have to be permanently antagonistic.
Sir Keir has shown that this is not a 'zero-sum game'. On balance, it is win-win for all sides, and it has not compromised or prejudiced existing and prospective trade deals, including those recently concluded with India and the United States.
Some compromises have been reached, diplomatic squares have been circled and, ironic as it is, Sir Keir has now secured some of the most luscious fruits of Brexit that the British people were promised – trade deals with other major economic players, but now alongside a closer relationship with Europe.
The deal has been won with some considerable imagination and ingenuity on both sides, widening the relationship in defence and security, for example, while partnership could not easily be made much deeper economically, given the 'red lines' on both sides.
In itself, it won't have a transformative economic effect; however, it reverses the previous momentum towards alienation, and adds the security and defence dimension – a priceless addition.
Of course, no basket of free trade agreements struck by Britain, including this reset, can remotely compensate for the loss of markets and supply chains engendered by Brexit.
Yet, with no prospect of reversing it in the near future, Sir Keir is right to try and 'make Brexit work'.
Practically, there is no alternative, and this pragmatic premier wasn't going to allow his past passionate belief in Europe to prevent him from furthering the British national interest – and that includes deterring Russia.
That extension of intergovernmental cooperation into defence and security was, in fact, first proposed by Theresa May as a clever way of balancing out the baleful impact of the Brexit referendum – but jettisoned, with his usual disregard for the true national interest (as opposed to his own career), by Mr Johnson.
It is an area where European integration is more crucial than ever, but also one outside the formal structures of the European Union – and thus where other non-member states, such as Norway, can find a role.
The national veto is, in effect, preserved. There's no possibility of a so-called European army fighting under the EU flag – though that would be no bad thing if it operated as a European arm of, or successor to, Nato, given American ambivalence about its commitments an ocean away.
Indeed, if Nato does atrophy, a European replacement is essential.
Politically, the reset also goes with the grain of British public opinion.
Whatever else, few in the UK think that the answer to its economic problems is 'more Brexit' and making trade with Europe even more difficult in the name of some abstract – and mistaken – concept of absolute sovereignty.
It is not too pretentious to suppose that the British people share with their prime minister a fundamentally pragmatic view of the world, and an impatience with dogma.
Brexit was never a particularly popular project – the infamous 52-48 per cent split showed that, even at the time of the 2016 vote – and that expression of the 'will of the people' was a long while ago, and certainly not as fresh as Sir Keir's mandate for the Brexit reset.
Besides, Brexit has proved at best a flop and, in its more grotesque moments, a clown show.
The electorate has no wish to reopen the traumatic wounds suffered in the Brexit wars, but they would like to be friends with the neighbours, to trade more freely without fussing over the European Court of Justice, and to allow young people to travel, work, and study more easily.
Sir Keir has made that possible. He deserves the credit for his personal diplomacy.
If he were as good at getting things done at home as he is abroad, he could be much more confident about the prospects for his government.
But, for now, he may be permitted a moment of celebration.