Starmer is desperate for a reset of UK relations with the EU (Image: Getty)
Shameless Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t even pretend anymore. In perhaps the most defining week of his political life, where is the prime minister?
As Britain burns, he has sloped off to Armenia to shore up support for Ukraine and deepen our ties with his brethren in Brussels. It says everything about a man whose eye has not been on domestic difficulties, and there are quite a few, but who has always been hellbent on resetting relations with Brussels.
Sir Keir and the army of human rights lawyers, activists, and pearl-clutchers inhabiting the left don’t like democracy. It is why they have sought to override the 2016 EU referendum result.
At first, it was menacing and insidious. Now it is downright obvious.
Starmer desperately wants a reset of UK relations with Brussels (Image: Getty)
Under Sir Keir – in what might be his final few days in the job – the UK is poised to join the EU’s €90bn (£78bn) loan scheme for Ukraine. This will help Kyiv in its ongoing and bloody war with Russia but also, crucially, deepen UK defence ties with the bloc.
The PM is schmoozing with European leaders in West Asia and will pledge Britain’s support as the EU reasserts its commitment to Ukraine in its fight against Russia‘s 2022 invasion.
Few would disagree with the need to arm Kyiv against the onslaught ordered by despot Vladimir Putin, but most can see what this is: EU alignment via the back door.
The deal could see the UK hand over £1bn a year in return for closer ties to the EU as Starmer goes weak at the knees at the sight of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, under whose spell he remains.
The reset of relations Labour so desperately wants is no secret.
Britain’s lurch from independence sought by the 17.4m who voted for Brexit and into the arms of the Government’s kinsmen in Brussels grows greater with each passing day.
And Starmer no longer cares.
He said: “When the UK and the European Union work together, we all reap the benefits – and in these volatile times we need to go further and faster on defence to keep people safe.
“That is why we are beginning negotiations with the EU to ensure Ukraine gets the equipment it needs to defend its freedom, while driving opportunities for British industry to play its full part.
“I will always act in our national interest: protecting our security, supporting our allies, and delivering jobs and stability at home.”
Except he is not acting in the national interest, is he?
Labour has continued to hollow out our armed forces and has no credible plan to enable the UK to spend 3% of GDP on defence by the end of this Parliament.
As the Tories point out, he would rather spend taxpayers’ cash on “welfare rather than warfare”.
What has been happening since Labour came to power in July 2024, slowly and surely, is the great betrayal of Britain and, worse, overriding the democratic wishes of the people.
And don’t just take our word for it.
Labour MP Graham Stringer said Starmer has been “sabotaging Brexit by stealth from the day after the referendum”.
Britain voted to leave the European Union a decade ago, but we are still stuck in a sea of treacle thanks to the efforts to frustrate the process by those who cannot accept that democracy prevailed.
Mr Stringer’s warning to Sir Keir? “If people knew what a reversal would mean, there would be a bigger majority to stay out”.
The beleaguered PM, hardly in a position of strength right now, has been warned.
On Thursday, Labour faces almost certain annihilation at the polls when a chunk of the nation votes in the local elections.
And what will do for the party under Starmer has been his failing from day one: he doesn’t listen, no less act, on people’s concerns.