Starmer: French far-right government would not hurt goal of closer UK-EU ties

Sir Keir Starmer has said a victory for France’s National Rally would not damage Labour’s goal of negotiating a “better deal” with the European Union.

Marine Le Pen’s party is on the cusp of power after surging into the lead in the first round of legislative elections in France.

The Labour leader said the rise of nationalist parties meant that progressives had to show they had the answers to the concerns of disaffected voters.

Asked whether he would be willing to work with the far-right French party, Sir Keir told reporters in Buckingham and Bletchley on Monday: “I will work with any government in Europe and across the world if we are elected in to serve the country. For me, that’s what serious government is about.”

Challenged over whether he was concerned a Eurosceptic French government could make his aim of closer economic ties with the bloc more difficult to achieve, he said: “I genuinely don’t want to get ahead of myself. Firstly, we haven’t seen the final outcome in France. We’ve also got a big outcome of our own on Thursday.

“I don’t think it affects the overall intention we have, which is to negotiate a better deal with the EU. I think the deal we’ve got is botched. I think that anybody who’s trading with the EU feels that it’s botched, and we can do better than that across not just trade, but actually research and development, also on the security front.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “focused on this election” when asked about his reaction to the National Rally’s strong showing, and highlighted the Government’s work on tackling illegal migration.

Sir Keir said both bilateral deals with France and agreements with the whole EU were important to address the issue of small boats crossing the Channel.

Pressed on Ms Le Pen’s preference for bilateral deals over EU-wide ones, Sir Keir said: “I’ve always supported bilaterals as well as EU-wide agreements. They’re not mutually exclusive.

“And some of the agreements we’ve got with France are bilateral in any event. I think they need to be stronger and better and deeper, particularly in relation to smashing the gangs that are running the vile trade of putting people into boats.

“But there are also EU measures. The security agreement we want with the EU when it comes to dealing with smuggling gangs is really important.”

In terms of lessons he drew from the rise of nationalism or populism, Sir Keir said it was “that we need to address the everyday concerns of so many people in this country who feel disaffected by politics”.

“We have to take that head on and we have to show both Thursday in the United Kingdom and across Europe and the world that only progressives have the answers to the challenges that are facing us in this country and across Europe.

“We have to make that progressive cause but we have to, in making that, understand why it is certainly in the United Kingdom after 14 years of chaos and failure that people do feel disaffected with politics – return politics to service and continue to make that argument that politics is a force for good.”

Sir Keir also stressed Labour’s continued support for Ukraine should it seize power on July 5.

It came after Mr Sunak claimed multi-year support to Kyiv would be put at risk under a Labour government.

Asked whether he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin if he were to become prime minister, Sir Keir said: “At the moment that is simply not an issue.

“He is the aggressor in Ukraine, and the most important thing is to be absolutely clear that our support for Ukraine is on a united front in this country.”

Mr Sunak criticised Labour for failing to “match our pledge on increasing defence spending” and suggested a vote for Labour would strengthen Mr Putin.

“It sends a bad signal to our adversaries, like Putin, that we’re not serious about investing in our security, that we don’t have the staying power to stand up to him,” the Tory leader told Times Radio.

It was put to him that Labour has committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, just not set a date for when this would happen.

Mr Sunak replied: “That’s totally and utterly meaningless.

“We have a year-by-year trajectory for increasing defence spending, which the armed forces are now already planning on. Because you can’t plan to invest more in your defence unless you have long term certainty.”

Labour has said it would undertake a strategic defence review within the first year of government, to set out a path to the 2.5% increase.