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PARIS — Elon Musk may not approve of Keir Starmer and his Labour government, but you know who does?
The French.
“Very smart,” “more open” and “impressive” are just some of the descriptions used by French diplomats, ministers and officials to describe Starmer’s team after Labour came back to power in the United Kingdom after 14 years of conservative rule.
“It’s day and night. The [conservatives] were tetchy, very closed-minded. But now the guy I have opposite me is well-rounded, more convivial, humorous,” said one outgoing French minister who, like others quoted here, was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. The Elysée Palace declined to comment for this story.
While the far-right riots across the U.K. may be what’s on the new British prime minister’s mind at the moment, the French are thinking ahead, hoping that with Labour in power, Anglo-French ties can be strengthened after years of strained relations due to Brexit.
While the relationship between France and the U.K. improved under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak since the worst days of the Brexit talks, tensions remained with some of the Brexiteer ministers of the conservative government.
With them gone, Paris and London are finding a lot of common ground. Both want to Trump-proof defense and security on the Continent in case the former U.S. president returns to the White House.
Starmer has said he wants to reenergize relations with France and deepen cooperation between the defense industries of both countries. He also wants to strike a security deal with the EU and a veterinary standards pact as well as improve conditions for British touring artists with the bloc.
There’s no shortage of goodwill from Paris at the moment. French President Emmanuel Macron himself seemed so excited at Starmer’s win that he called the Labour leader to congratulate him on his win last month before he was officially appointed, a potential breach of protocol. The French president also tweeted a photo of himself in a warm embrace with the newly-elected British premier at the NATO summit in Washington.
The two sides are clearly enjoying a honeymoon period. But the thing about honeymoons is that at some point, they come to an end.
Pre-election courtship
The love-in between Labour and France has been brewing for some time now.
In September, Macron invited Starmer to the Elysée Palace, a privilege he had not bestowed on former Labour leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn or Ed Miliband.
During that first meeting in Paris, Starmer “positioned himself as a leader” in his talks with the French president, a French diplomat with direct knowledge of the talks said. The then-opposition leader talked about “the big issues: the U.S., China and trade” instead of locking horns with Macron on migration and Brexit. The move likely charmed the French president, who takes pride in his grasp of international politics.
“There’s good chemistry between Macron and Starmer, they get on well and have been in contact since they met a year ago,” Mujtaba Rahman, Europe head of the Eurasia group, told POLITICO.
“In France, there’s a new level of awareness, they are less obsessed with the EU-level talks but want to see a reengagement in the bilateral relationship,” he said.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy also led the courting of the French while Labour was in the opposition. Lammy has described himself as a “passionate Francophile” who has a love for “French writing, cuisine, music and thought” from his travels around Europe and Africa.
Lammy and Starmer also made it a point to go to the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in June. The two were not originally invited, but the then-shadow foreign secretary used his contacts to secure invites for both men, as well as a photo-op with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Their attendance made it easy to hammer Sunak’s decision to leave Normandy early in the day and skip the French-led commemorations so he could get back to the campaign trail.
Actions speak louder than words
How long the honeymoon lasts with the French depends on a number of things, notably on whether Labour can match actions with words.
While Starmer pledged to “renew the bonds of trust and friendship” with the EU, the French want proof not just expressions of love. “They’ve got to stop on the fishing [issue],” said the outgoing French minister, who referenced a dispute over the access of French boats to British waters.
One obvious area of increased cooperation between Europe’s two nuclear-armed states is defense, given Donald Trump’s isolationist bent.
Lammy told the French magazine Le Grand Continent that the U.S. pivot away from Europe and toward Asia is something that will outlast the Republican candidate, adding “there is no doubt that we need to coordinate more and better.”
Since coming to power, the British government has said it wants to strike a wide-ranging security and defense deal with the EU that will be complementary to NATO.
The French have been eyeing a stronger relationship with the British government long before Keir Starmer became prime minister. A parliament report from the French National Assembly’s defense committee released in May called for the U.K. to be reintegrated into the European Defence Fund — in exchange, obviously, for financial participation.
“Macron has been forced to mourn his ambition of a political Europe of defense. We are looking at a reinforcement of European defense within NATO, which lifts an obstacle on the defense relationship between France and the U.K.,” Pierre Sellal, France’s former ambassador to the EU, said in an interview with POLITICO.
Brexit, the elephant in the room
But on trade, things could quickly get complicated.
A French diplomat with direct knowledge of Macron and Starmer’s talks welcomed Labour’s objective to sign a veterinary deal with the EU, but added that the French would be making sure that new developments did not “distort the market.” Labour has already tabled a bill to align U.K. product standards with new EU legislation.
At the heart of the French misgivings over the relationship is that fear that Labour will sweet-talk the EU into giving them what the conservatives failed to get: cherry-picking on sector by sector access to the single market.
“We are ready to take some forms of rapprochement but only within the limits of our [Brexit] red lines, that means preserving the single market and no cherry-picking,” the same diplomat said.
François-Joseph Schichan, a former French diplomat and now a director at consultancy Flint Global, said the French will likely take the lead in safeguarding the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation agreement.
“In the end what matters to the French is whether the U.K. in getting closer to the EU will accept a cost in terms of sovereignty,” he said.
Mason Boycott-Owen reported from London. Laura Kayali contributed reporting from Paris.
