UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer initiates post-Brexit 'reset' with European Union

London, Jul 18 (PTI) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed leaders from the European Union to Oxfordshire in south-east England to initiate a “reset” with the 27-member economic bloc, which the UK is no longer a member of since a referendum in favour of leaving it in 2016.

At a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) in Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Britain’s war-time prime minister Winston Churchill, Starmer sought to set a new direction for his Labour Party government’s post-Brexit ties with Europe to align on issues such as illegal migration and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Distancing his new government from the previous Conservative Party policies, the Labour Leader reiterated that the “unworkable” scheme of deporting illegal migrants to Rwanda had been “scrapped” and that the UK will never withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

“The EPC will fire the starting gun on this government’s new approach to Europe, one that will not just benefit us now, but for generations to come, from dismantling the people smuggling webs trafficking people across Europe to standing up to [Russian President] Putin’s barbaric actions in Ukraine and destabilising activity across Europe,” said Starmer.

“I take a practical view of how the UK can meet this moment. I’m not driven by ideology – but by what is best for my country. So we will strengthen our existing relationships and we will build new ones. This includes resetting our relationship with the EU… and this summit is an opportunity to set a new path on illegal migration; to transform the way that we work together on border security and law enforcement,” he said.

Starmer then joined the EPC’s Migration Working Group, which included leaders from Italy, Albania, Germany, Malta, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands and Slovakia.

Downing Street said the government is redeploying more than 100 Home Office staff from the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) to a new rapid returns unit to take control of the country's borders.

This will mean asylum applications from designated “safe” countries, such as India, will be speedily processed and illegal migrants returned to their country of origin.

It comes after the government announced a new Border Security Bill in Parliament on Wednesday to tackle criminal smuggling gangs giving a new Border Security Command counter-terrorism-style powers to disrupt organised immigration crime and ensure smugglers can be prosecuted for preparatory offences such as supplying materials to facilitate organised immigration crime.

“Dangerous small boat crossings are undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. Criminal smuggling gangs are making millions out of small boat crossings. We will work right across Europe to tackle this problem at (the) source, going after those profiting from this awful trade and bringing them to justice,” said UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

The EPC is a pan-European meeting of leaders, including the heads of the EU institutions and, for the first time at this EPC, leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have also been included.

The only European governments not invited are Russia and Belarus, related to the conflict with Ukraine, with defending democracy and energy security among the other key issues on the agenda of the day-long summit. PTI