Building his profile on global stage, UK opposition leader meets Macron

Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, a research institute, said Mr Starmer knew that after years of tension over Brexit, an incoming Labour government’s credibility with the European Union could be quite low.

“So Starmer is seeing European leaders like Macron to try and prepare them, by letting them know in advance some of his plans for a Labour government, and to reassure them that it is going to be very different, that it’s not going to be Rishi Sunak Mark II,” he said.