Starmer’s EU reset risks being dragged down by the old Brexit undertow | Rafael Behr

With Trump back in the White House, politicians on both sides of the Channel need to acknowledge the urgency of closer ties

Five years since leaving the European Union, Britain is still negotiating Brexit. This time next year, Britain will still be negotiating Brexit. And for every foreseeable year after that.

That isn't a comment on the scope of the reset" in relations that Starmer outlined at a Brussels summit this week. It is a statement of fact that Britain is tethered to the EU by forces of geography, economics and geopolitics, and those factors didn't cease to exist when membership of the club was terminated. And since the European project is always evolving in response to global events, Britain will also continually seek adjustment to the terms of the relationship.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist