European politicians are already pouncing on Starmer’s obvious bid to tighten the UK’s ties with the EU. Germany’s ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger, has come out saying that London and Brussels should ink a massive security pact, encompassing everything from farming regulations to the Erasmus student exchange programme. Starmer’s pursuit of an EU-UK defence pact is clearly about more than just ‘defence’…

Berger’s call for cooperation on “areas which are in the common interest” signals that closer ties are imminent. This isn’t just idle chat. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has already said that Starmer’s proposed UK-EU defence pact should cover pandemics, migration, critical minerals, and decarbonisation. Starmer can expect that brokering a student-exchange deal while migration numbers soar will ruffle plenty of feathers among MPs. Ever on the path to re-join…