UK’s Starmer lovebombs Scholz — but no going back on Brexit

BERLIN — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted he is not seeking to reverse Brexit as he touted the prospect of a European Union-wide youth mobility deal as part of a “wider reset” of relations.
Starmer, whose center-left Labour Party took over from the Conservatives last month, was warmly welcomed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz on a trip to Berlin, where the pair talked up a new bilateral treaty aimed at repairing ties frayed by Britain’s exit from the European Union.
“I am delighted that Keir Starmer has announced that he will seek a fresh start in his relationship with the European Union,” Scholz said at a joint press conference alongside Starmer Wednesday. “We want to grasp this outstretched hand.”
Starmer arrived in Berlin pledging to “turn a corner on Brexit” after the rancor between Europe and the U.K. in the years following Britain’s 2016 Brexit vote.
The first Labour leader to take charge in Britain since 2010, Starmer has been keen to stress a “once in a generation opportunity to reset” relations.
Charming Berlin is seen as key to his bid to draw Britain back towards the bloc’s orbit — without being seen by Brexiteers back home as betraying the result of the eight-year-old referendum.
Starmer and Scholz have already fired the starting gun on six months of negotiations for what Downing Street billed as an unprecedented new treaty covering trade, defense and security. Starmer told the press conference he wants to move faster than that — wrapping up the treaty by the end of the year.
That sharp timeline is important — bleak polling for Scholz’s Social Democratic Party suggests his months in office may be numbered.
“I’m absolutely clear that we do want a reset,” Starmer said Wednesday. But he added: “That does not mean reversing Brexit or re-entering the [EU’s] single market or the customs union.”
Starmer did tout vague “exchanges” as part of the “wider reset” with Europe. Starmer said he has “no plans” for a wider youth mobility scheme, which would make it easier for under 30s to study, work and live in both the U.K. and the EU for a number of years. That would be welcomed by younger citizens — but potentially tricky for Starmer’s pledge to lower migration.
However, when pressed by reporters for specific details on the exchanges he had flouted, Starmer cited only “education” and “cultural exchange.” But he made clear “we didn’t go into the details of that today.”
Scholz had told the assembled journalists that “contacts” between Germans and Brits had “declined massively” after Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. “If you know each other well, you understand each other better. Keir Starmer and I see it very similarly. That’s why we want to intensify the exchange between Germany and the U.K.”
The trip also highlighted just how much pressure both leaders face on migration, an issue that came up repeatedly in press questions.
The U.K. leader also talked up “substantive discussions” with Scholz on curbing illegal migration, including an as-yet vague “joint action plan” on the issue.
Starmer told reporters that a returns agreement on the removal of migrants from each respective country “wasn’t discussed today” — but he said the plans do include “intercepting the boats as they’re in transit across Europe,” with criminals reportedly using Germany to store many of the small vessels which are then used to smuggle migrants across the English Channel.
For his part, Scholz, who is under mounting pressure domestically in the wake of a deadly stabbing attack in Solingen and the arrest of a Syrian national suspect, sought to strike a tough-sounding tone on irregular migration.
“We have massively expanded controls at the German borders and will continue to do so for as long as possible,” he said. “And yet the numbers are nowhere near what the citizens expect.”
He added: “If you want legal immigration, you have to limit irregular migration so that the country is not overwhelmed. This can and must be achieved without calling international agreements, European law or the constitution into question. We owe this to the victims of Solingen.”
Next stop for Starmer is Paris. He’ll be attending the Paralympics Opening Ceremony and will use the opportunity to pop by the Elysée Palace for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Noah Keate contributed reporting.