French President Macron is expected to tell Sir Keir Starmer that Brexit has failed as he appears at a key EU summit.
Sir Keir, who is trying to “reset” Britain’s relationship with the world’s largest trading bloc, will become the first British Prime Minister to attend an EU summit dinner and have a seat around the table since Brexit in 2020 on Monday as he calls for Europe to bear down on Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
But senior diplomats have told The Times that France views Sir Keir as the “demandeur,” or “applicant,” who is trying to push his way back into the EU fold.
One diplomat told the newspaper: “The Brexit project, breaking away from the EU to create a global Britain, didn’t work. We thought it wouldn’t work because the UK is European, geographically and economically.
“Brexit was a project for a stable and prosperous world, but in a complicated world, obviously the UK will be closer to Europe.”
Meanwhile, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski told the BBC on Monday morning that Brexit was an irreversible mistake but that the EU misses the UK.
He told the Today programme: “We watch British opinion polls and it appears the majority of the British public now thinks Brexit was a mistake. I don’t think it was a reversible mistake but the UK is a very valued partner.
“We miss you and in particular, in the security environment, Britain has been very forthright on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We appreciate that and we would like to have Britain as a major partner in the defence field.”
Sir Keir will urge EU countries to shoulder more of the burden of aid for Ukraine when he meets the heads of the 27 EU governments on Monday in Belgium and will call on them to follow UK and US sanctions on Russia’s faltering economy.
The Prime Minister is also expected to praise Donald Trump’s threat of further restrictions on Russia, which he will claim has “rattled” President Putin.
But Sir Keir’s comments may be overshadowed by the threat of an international trade war as America’s neighbours vowed retaliation for tariffs imposed by Mr Trump.
The US president has announced he will impose 25% trade taxes on goods coming from America’s largest trade partners – Canada and Mexico – as well as a 10% levy on Chinese goods.
All three nations have vowed to respond in kind to Mr Trump’s actions, sparking fears of a global trade war.
Mr Trump is now expected to turn his attention to the EU, having warned that the US will impose levies on imports from the trade bloc “pretty soon”.
EU officials have started drawing up contingency plans for the threat of US tariffs, and representatives of the bloc are bullish about the prospect of a face-off with America, the Telegraph reported.
Mr Trump suggested Britain might avoid tariffs - but said they ’might’ still face them - but quipped that “it’s an atrocity what the [EU] has done” early on Monday.
Still, London’s FTSE 100 Index tumbled more than 1% when it opened on Monday morning after Mr Trump’s warning that the EU will be next.
Mr Sikorski also told the BBC on Monday morning that tariffs were “the last thing we want but a response is inevitable”.
Foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot stressed that thousands of US companies based in Europe would be the “first victims” if the new president imposes tariffs.
The European Union would retaliate to such a step by Mr Trump, he added.
