Keir Starmer can’t build a stronger European partnership by stealth. He has to declare it aloud | Rafael Behr

There are 10 days of negotiation before the summit in London , where a new UK - EU partnership is due to be unveiled.

But there is progress in the very fact that Britain ’s ruling party sees Brussels as a partner, not a parasite.

Most Britons see the prospect of better relations with the EU as desirable, or at least uncontroversial.

The trade deal that Starmer agreed with the US president on Thursday may not clash with goals he is simultaneously pursuing in Brussels .

Trump hates the EU for its geopolitical autonomy as a continental trading bloc.

That is understood in Brussels as an existential threat.

Sooner or later, there will come a crisis that forces Starmer to choose between solidarity with Europe and vassalage to Washington .