The likelihood that Sir Keir Starmer would make early prime ministerial visits to Berlin and Paris could have been confidently predicted from the moment that Labour won the general election. But the content and precise significance of the visits was less easily foreseen. In the event, it is now clear that Sir Keir’s talks this week with the leaders of Germany and France have taken on an even greater importance than could have been expected in July.
The so-called “reset” of Britain’s European relationships was signalled in Labour’s manifesto. It was never going to be about reversing Brexit or joining the single market. Those things were explicitly ruled out during the election. But it was certainly about softening Brexit. There was never any doubt that, from outside the EU, Labour would seek to deepen Britain’s ties with Europe in several fields, notably security. Nor that most of Europe would be open to this happening.
The visit to Germany embodied this new approach. It was significant that Sir Keir went to Berlin first, because the German economy, though it is struggling, remains Europe’s largest. Germany is also pivotal in Europe’s response to the Ukraine war. The two sides agreed to prioritise a new treaty on defence and economic ties, as well as foreign policy cooperation and people-to-people contacts.
All this is desirable. It signals a new start, long overdue and hugely necessary, in Anglo-German relations. Since Britain already has many similar agreements with France, it is also the most eye-catching bit. A new trade agreement with the EU, negotiated with the European Commission as well as member states, will be an altogether more complex and time-consuming exercise. Even so, that must come too.
The real-time importance of these visits, though, is at least as much political as diplomatic. Britain has just suffered a traumatic period of racist rioting. As Sir Keir put it this week, it “revealed a deeply unhealthy society” that had been “infected by a spiral of populism”. The main catalyst for populists and rioters is migration. So the government needs to show that it can make humane policies effective. This demands effective working with Germany, Europe’s main migrant destination, and with France, our nearest neighbour, as well as the rest of the EU.
Part of this – an important part – is about getting a grip on the small-boat crossings of asylum seekers in the Channel. Yet there is actually a bigger issue too. All three nations, and many others, face comparable challenges. The stabbings in Solingen a week ago have disturbingly powerful echoes of Southport. They have rocketed the problem of anti-migrant feeling to the top of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s political agenda, with regional elections due this weekend. Meanwhile in Paris, President Emmanuel Macron may bask in the success of the Olympics – and hopefully the Paralympics too. But he is close to being overwhelmed by his mishandled approach to the rise of French populism.
None of these national situations are identical. But they are all urgent. None of the governments, all at different stages of their respective electoral cycles but all also classifiable as from the centre-left, are going to draw the populist sting on its own either. Only cooperation will achieve that. The three need to lead a coordinated response and to cooperate in strategic and humane ways. If Sir Keir’s visits have contributed to giving this task the priority it requires, they will have achieved much more than a reset.
