Munich security conference live updates: Starmer warns Europe must be ‘ready to fight’ as he sends message to Trump – UK Times

Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

In a wide-ranging speech and Q&A session at the Munich security conference Keir Starmer touched on everything from deploying UK warships to last week’s attempts to oust him as prime minister and Brexit.Here are the key things he said:

• Europe “must be ready to fight” as it faces a growing threat from Russia.
• Trump should “be in no doubt – if called on the UK would come to your aid today”.
• A group of British warships will patrol the Arctic following Trump’s threats to annex Greenland.
• The UK should economically align more closely with the EU.
• “We are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore” and must co-operate on more with Europe, and rely less on the US, on defence.
• Attacked Reform as “pro-Putin” as he accused Farage’s party and the Greens of “division and then capitulation” that would see the “the lamps go out across Europe once again”
• Denied he “narrowly missed” being toppled and said he ended this week “much stronger than I started it, and that’s a very good place to be.”

Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

The Labour leader denied he was almost forced from office this week as he attacked Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party as pro-Putin.

Asked if he had “narrowly missed” being toppled, after the leader of Scottish Labour called on him to resign, he said: “No, I reject that. I ended the week much stronger than I started it, and that’s a very good place to be.”

He said his party and his government were completely united on the question of Ukraine and defence and security and the need for stronger relations with Europe on these issues.

He also hit out at Mr Farage’s party saying: “Reform have a different agenda, they are pro Putin. We know where they stand. Imagine if they were in government in the United Kingdom… We would not be seen as a leader on the European or international stage. We would be seen as a country that people couldn’t do business with.”

The prime minister says on stage that Reform is “pro-Putin” and we “would be seen as a country that people could not do business with”.

Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

The PM used his speech in Munich to say the UK should more closely align with the EU economically.

He said the UK should “move closer to the single market” in certain markets, where it was in the interest of both sides.

His message comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum result which took the UK out of the EU.

Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

The Labour leader hit out at Reform UK and the Green Party, describing them as “the peddlers of easy answers on the extreme left and the extreme right” and claiming that the future they offer would see “the lamps … go out across Europe once again”, a reference to the chilling remark made by the then foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey before the First World War.

He said: “It’s striking that the different ends of the spectrum share so much. Soft on Russia and weak on Nato – if not outright opposed. And determined to sacrifice the longstanding relationships that we want and need to build, on the altar of their ideology.

“The future they offer is one of division and then capitulation. The lamps would go out across Europe once again. But we will not let that happen.”

Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

Sir Keir Starmer received a round of applause as he told world leaders that Britain’s “Brexit years” are over and called for closer security ties with Europe – and less reliance on Donald Trump’s United States.

The Prime Minister added: “Because we know that in a dangerous world, we would not take control by turning inward, we would surrender it, and I won’t let that happen.

“That’s why I devote time as Prime Minister to Britain’s leadership on the world stage, and that’s why I’m here today, because I am clear there is no British security without Europe and no European security without Britain.

“That is the lesson of history, and is today’s reality as well.”

Sir Keir Starmer insisted the UK would honour the Nato commitment to defend its allies if called upon.

One of the alliance’s founding principles, Article 5, is that an attack on one Nato member is an attack on all.

US president Donald Trump has questioned whether the US’s European partners would answer the call if it were made today.

The prime minister sought to dispel this doubt.

He said: “I am proud that my party fought for Nato’s creation, what our then-foreign secretary Ernie Bevin, called a spiritual union of the West.

“And we’ve shown our fidelity to that ideal, asserting each other’s sovereignty as we did on Greenland, and crucially, coming to each other’s aid under article five, we fought together in Afghanistan at terrible cost to many in my country and across many allied countries.

“So I say to all Nato members, our commitment to article five is as profound now as ever, and be in no doubt, if called on, the UK would come to your aid today.”

UK will deploy a carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and High North region this year, Keir Starmer has announced.

The prime minister told the Munich Security Conference: “I can announce today that the UK will deploy our carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and the High North this year, led by HMS Prince of Wales, operating alongside the US, Canada and other Nato allies in a powerful show of our commitment to Euro-Atlantic security.”

The deployment comes following US President Donald Trump’s assertion earlier this year that he wants to take over Greenland.

Mr Trump has claimed he does not believe Denmark, of which Greenland is a territory, does not do enough to defend it from threats by Russia and China.

European nations rallied to Denmark’s side amid the suggestion the US could annex Greenland.

Europe does not seek conflict but must be ready to fight as it faces a growing threat from Russia, Sir Keir Starmer told the conference.

He said: “Now we feel the solidity of peace, the very ground that we stand on softening under our feet.

“It’s the job of leaders to be ahead of these seismic shapes, yet that is against the grain of history.”

He said leaders must not dither as “Russia has proved its appetite for aggression”.

He continued that after a peace deal for Ukraine, “Russia’s rearmament would only accelerate” and “we must answer this threat in full”.

“To break the convention of a thousand speeches, we are not at a crossroads. The road ahead is straight and it is clear. We must build our hard power, because that is the currency of the age.

“We must be able to deter aggression , and, yes, if necessary, we must be ready to fight.”