What should Britain’s future relationship with the European Union look like?

Sir Keir says that the UK is not ‘choosing between the United States (US) and the EU’, but the threats by Donald Trump, President of the US, to use tariffs and military might against friendly countries shows the risks of being too dependent on America. Sir Keir should build the closest possible relationship with the EU, in trade and security. Tariffs permitting, the US is likely to remain a major trade partner of the UK, and the bilateral defence and security relationship would be hard to replace in the short to medium term. But the EU is a significantly more important trading partner for Britain than the US is, and a government that prioritises growth would do well to seek to rejoin the single market – a step which would benefit Britain’s important services sector as well as its manufacturers.

The UK should also build on the discussions between Sir Keir and his EU colleagues this week and seek closer British involvement in European defence cooperation – even if this is currently a very poor substitute for what the US can bring to the table. Trump is an unreliable ally, as his attempts to pressurise Denmark into ceding Greenland show. And America’s military strength will not help the UK in a European crisis if US forces have been redeployed to confront the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – as some senior Pentagon officials reportedly want.