Sir Keir Starmer is set to be invited to a meeting of EU leaders in what will be seen as a sign of success for his plans for a great Brexit “reset’”.
It will be the first time a British prime minister has been asked to attend such a gathering since the UK’s exit from the European Union in 2020.
And it will be seen as an early win for Sir Keir’s plans to improve the UK’s damaged relationship with the bloc in the wake of Brexit.
The event will see EU leaders meet to discuss European security at an informal retreat in Belgium on 3 February.
The PM will be asked to dine with the leaders of the 27 member states by António Costa, the incoming president of the European Council, two EU officials told the Financial Times.
Earlier this week Nick Thomas-Symonds, the UK minister in charge of the “reset” negotiations met Mr Costa in Brussels.
Sir Keir is keen to develop a security pact with Brussels, which would cover defence alongside energy issues and migration, as he tries to reform the poor Brexit deal Labour believes was secured by the former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson.
On Wednesday, Sir Keir told MPs he was “determined to reset the relationship and we have already begun that,” with work already underway on “trading, security and other cooperation”.
Setting out the scale of his ambition earlier this year, Sir Keir promised to fix Britain’s damaged relations with the EU for the benefit of “generations to come”.
Like former PMs Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir has met EU leaders during his time in office as part of a wider grouping known as the European Political Community, which includes more than 40 countries.
The FT also reported that Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte will attend lunch at the February meeting.
Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group consultancy, told the paper: “Costa is keen to engage the European Council in more strategically oriented discussions, and Rutte is going to be a key messenger of EU policies and ideas to Trump.”
“The UK also has a key role to play given the focus on security and defence, but No 10 will be keen to avoid creating the perception of a binary choice between the US and EU,” he added.
The UK and EU are also working on plans for a summit in the first half of next year.
