Staff Writer Grace Holloway examines how the UK government seeks to repair its foreign relations with the EU.
In recent years, with the Conservative administration have gone through Brexit and experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government has certainly moved further away from Europe. Yet, under the new Labour government and wider context, it appears the country is strengthening ties with its closest ally.
Whilst Brexit dominated the political arena for arguably the last decade, it appears the UK government may be taking on a new diplomatic approach which turns a corner on that period.
What has changed since?
The Labour government was elected on a manifesto that proposed to ‘Reconnect Britain’. A key aim of this strategy is rebuilding relationships both with the US and Europe.
The proposals aimed to improve the nations trade relationships with the EU, by reducing barriers to trade such as border checks. Yet, no major developments have occurred over this aspect, as customs procedures and new security checks between the UK and EU have instead increased.
Second to this, the strategy of moving closer to the EU set out the importance of security and cooperation on the threat of Russia. This included strengthening relations NATO and using multilateral institutions as a platform to strengthen our security agenda.
A UK-EU Security pact is currently in the making, however the implications and details of the requirements are yet to be revealed. In October last year, David Lammy was the first Foreign Secretary to attend the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council in the last two years. This signalled the governments commitment to strengthening relations in the context of wider security threats.
The highly salient issue of immigration has encouraged closer European relations. The Labour government partnered with Germany, late last year, to work together on smuggling law reform. Under the coming year, as immigration figures continue to increase, partnerships may be made with France and other European nations to encourage broader change on an issue that has dominated the political agenda for years.
In the year ahead, we may see further developments on these proposed deals, as well as further in person meetings between key leaders to signal this movement.
What is encouraging the change?
While the Labour government is committed to improving relations in their 2024 manifesto, a wider context of incentives for closer ties exists.
Firstly, public opinion has drastically shifted in favour of more relations with the EU. In a poll conducted by YouGov/DataPraxis 68% of respondents would support full free movement in exchange for access to the EU single market. This reached 54% support among those who backed Brexit in 2016.
Secondly, a large influence on this is the election of President Trump in America. Trump plans to implement tariffs on goods, resulting in higher importing and exporting costs for the UK goods market. What this can mean is a translation of higher prices for customers, and encourage businesses to source imports from other countries such as China and the EU.
Additionally, Trump’s stance on Foreign policy is considered difficult in the UK’s position to continue to support Ukraine against Russia. Trump claims allies within NATO need to increase their defence contributions, or risk the US reducing their investment in the agreement.
Public opinion at the time of the US election was highly opposed to Trump, as two-thirds of the British public backed Kamala Harris. Public opposition and Trump’s agenda for office may further a move away from the ‘special relationship’ to closer connections with European allies.
This movement also comes at a time where right-wing politicians in the US are becoming more opposed to the labour government. Elon Musk, now gaining a spotlight in the British Press, has been a vocal opposer of the UK government over various issues including grooming gangs and the imprisonment of far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Using his platform X (formerly Twitter), Musk has called out the UK government and has taken advice on how to remove the Labour government.
The increasing hostility between Trump’s close allies and the current Labour government, may further encourage movements away from the US, as the President’s inauguration is right round the corner.
What is for the future?
While the UK will not re-join the EU in the near future, the year-ahead could see developments in both the highly anticipated security pact, and reducing barriers to trade. The government’s diplomatic agenda will most likely be leaning towards closer ties with Europe, in order to bring success on the policy agenda important to them.
Yet, it is unclear whether this strategy of closer European integration will be beneficial to the Labour government, who have had one of the worst starts in terms of popularity. However, as public opinion moves towards closer ties and potentially against the policy agenda of the next US president, if the Labour government are able to make this strategy work, then they may be rewarded.
Grace Holloway is Roar's editor-in-chief managing the editorial side of our operation as well. She has gained valuable experience from Bloomberg as well as writing for Breaking Media, the Non-League Paper and Politics UK.
