French President Emmanuel Macron will tell Sir Keir Starmer that Brexit has failed.
The Labour leader will become the first UK Prime Minister to attend an EU summit dinner since Brexit in 2020 as he attempts to forge closer ties to the bloc.
But France views Sir Keir as the “demandeur,” someone who is being pushed back into the EU’s orbit amid growing global instability.
A senior diplomat said: “The Brexit project, breaking away from the EU to create a global Britain, didn’t work. We thought it wouldn’t work because the UK is European, geographically and economically.
“Brexit was a project for a stable and prosperous world, but in a complicated world, obviously the UK will be closer to Europe.”
The looming prospect of a trade war with the US threatens to overshadow Sir Keir’s meeting with EU chiefs after Donald Trump claimed the UK is “out of line”.
In comments overnight, the US president suggested he is poised to expand his tariff regime to both the UK and the EU, but added that he thinks a deal can be done with Britain.
Asked by the BBC early on Monday if he will target the UK with tariffs, Mr Trump said: “UK is out of line but I’m sure that one… I think that one can be worked out.”
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