Starmer urges Europe to deepen interdependence amid Trump threats
Starmer has attempted to good relations with the US president to avoid the most punitive of tariffs and persuade him to continue supporting Ukraine
After a year of refusing to choose between Washington and Brussels, Keir Starmer shifted tone in Munich by edging Britain closer to the European Union and calling for an end to over-reliance on American military support.
In a speech to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the UK Prime Minister urged Europe to deepen its interdependence and sovereign deterrence in light of less support from across the Atlantic since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
British officials told reporters that his language marks a sharper and more assertive stance than previously.
“I’m talking about a vision of European security and greater European autonomy, that does not herald US withdrawal but answers the call for more burden sharing in full, and remakes the ties that have served us so well,” Starmer said, according to excerpts of his speech provided by his office.
“We are not the Britain of the Brexit years any more. Because we know that, in dangerous times, we would not take control by turning inward – we would surrender it. And I won’t let that happen. There is no British security without Europe, and no European security without Britain.”
Britain has acted as a bridge between the US and EU since Trump returned to the White House last year. Starmer has attempted to balance good relations with the unpredictable president – to avoid the most punitive of tariffs and persuade him to continue supporting Ukraine – with the Labour government’s desire for a closer trading relationship with the EU six years on from Brexit.