Keir Starmer will put immigration and border security at the centre of his first summit with European leaders, as he races to agree changes to the asylum system to replace the defunct Rwanda scheme.
The prime minister will host 45 European leaders at Blenheim Palace for the European Political Community meeting on Thursday, the first opportunity for him to begin lobbying for new arrangements for dealing with asylum seekers trying to cross the Channel.
Starmer is expected to tell leaders at the summit he wants to “renew” Britain’s relations with Europe, with new border controls and an agreement on defence and security at the heart of any renegotiation.
He will introduce a plenary session in the morning during which Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, will also speak, amid growing concern among European leaders about what a second Donald Trump presidency might mean for the war in Ukraine.
In a statement released before the meeting, Starmer said: “We cannot let the challenges of the recent past define our relationships of the future. That is why European security will be at the forefront of this government’s foreign and defence priorities, and why I am focused on seizing this moment to renew our relationship with Europe.
“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 Putin’s barbaric actions in Ukraine and destabilising activity across Europe.”
He will make a direct plea to his fellow leaders not to block his attempts to agree new border controls, saying: “We will only be able to secure our borders, drive economic growth and defend our democracies if we work together.”
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, added: “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 and the Tories left us with gimmick rather than grip. We will work right across Europe to tackle this problem at source, going after those profiting from this awful trade and bringing them to justice.”
One of Starmer’s first acts in office was to scrap the previous government’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, promising instead to focus on combatting people-smuggling gangs, particularly those operating on the north coast of France.
Last September Starmer said he would seek an EU-wide returns agreement as a long-term goal that would make European countries agree to take back people who were not granted asylum status.
In return the Labour leader acknowledged his government was likely to have to accept a quota on how many asylum seekers it took from the rest of the EU. Labour officials later said, however, this would only apply to a small number of cases such as with children who had family members in the UK.
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On Wednesday the prime minister announced his government would introduce a new bill to place stronger penalties on those found guilty of organised people-trafficking and to speed up the returns process to countries the UK deemed safe.
Starmer will follow this up on Thursday by announcing he will redeploy 100 Home Office staff to a new rapid returns unit. He will also pledge that Britain will help European efforts to combat immigration crime through organisations such as Europol and Frontex.
The prime minister will speak at the beginning of a plenary session on Thursday morning, after which he will attend a breakout session on migration chaired by the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama.
Earlier this week Frontex, the EU’s border agency, revealed that migration had fallen by 61% on the central Mediterranean route in the first six months of the year, with sources suggesting that Tunisia was taking more interest in cracking down on people-smugglers who last summer launched between 40 and 50 boats a day to Italy.
Overall numbers have dropped by a third to 94,000, with the central Mediterranean and Balkans routes declining but a 174% jump in numbers trying to get to the Canary Islands.
Starmer will also host a series of bilateral meetings with European leaders including the French president, Emmanuel Macron. He is also expected to attend a meeting of the Moldova Group, which is designed to bolster the eastern European country’s sovereignty in the face of Russian interference.
On Wednesday evening Starmer hosted Simon Harris, the Irish taoiseach, for a three-hour dinner at Chequers as he seeks to reverse almost a decade of strained relations between the two countries.
Harris has already said he will support Starmer’s attempt to reset relations with the EU, which is in Ireland’s interest given the extra financial and regulatory burden that Brexit imposed on businesses trading with Great Britain, Ireland’s most valuable export market.
“I am fully committed to a stronger, mutually respectful and ambitious partnership between both countries, and to getting down to work to make this happen,” Harris said before the meeting.
The biggest moment of the summit could, however, come from Zelenskiy, who has decided to travel to the UK amid growing signs that an incoming Republican administration, should Trump win the US election, would reduce support for Kyiv in the war against Russia.
Officials said Zelenskiy was considering giving a press conference at the end of the summit as European leaders seek to send a message to Washington about their continuing commitment to the Ukrainian cause.