Sir Keir Starmer has said “lamps will go out in Europe” under Nigel Farage’s Reform UK or Zack Polanski’s Green Party.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference this morning, the Prime Minister told an audience of world leaders their parties were “soft on Russia” and “weak on Nato”, declaring the UK was no longer the “Britain of the Brexit years”.
On his home rivals, he blasted: “It’s striking that the different ends of the spectrum share so much. Soft on Russia and weak on Nato if not outright opposed.”
Branding the parties as the “peddlers of easy answers on the extreme left and the extreme right”, Sir Keir told the audience of world leaders: “They are determined to sacrifice the longstanding relationships that we want and need to build, on the altar of their ideology.
Sir Keir addressed world leaders in Munich today
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“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.”
In 1914, then-Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey issued the same warning the day before Britain entered the First World War.
In response, Mr Farage said: “In a desperate attempt to save his job, Keir Starmer is attacking Reform UK today.
“This weak, unpatriotic Prime Minister caves in to China, gives away the Chagos Islands and refuses to properly fund our Armed Forces. He is on borrowed time.”
In his speech, the PM also announced the UK will deploy its carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and High North region as soon as this year, adding it will be led by the HMS Prince of Wales alongside the US, Canada and “other Nato allies”.
The British leader also received applause as he turned his ire on matters of Brexit and encouraged allies to step away from “overdependence” on the US.
He said: “We are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore.
“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.”
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Marco Rubio addressed world leaders earlier
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On defence, he said Europe must be prepared to fight and do whatever “it takes to protect our people, our values and our own two feet”.
He added: “That means being bolder, it means putting away petty politics and short-term concerns. It means acting together to build a stronger Europe and a more European NATO.”
Meanwhile, in Munich earlier today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US and Europe “belong together”, saying the fate of the continent will “never be irrelevant to our own”.
However, he urged nations to change their course on matters of mass migration, saying it “is not, was not, some fringe concern of little consequences”.
He warned the matter was “transforming and destablising societies all across the West”.
Sir Keir Starmer, alongside Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Defence Secretary John Healey
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Whilst he assured European leaders the US would support them, Mr Rubio pointed out the alliance must be mended, saying “we don’t want allies who are weak”.
The US is not interested in being “polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline”, he added.
Following his speech, Sir Keir said he “ended the week much stronger than I started it” after he was questioned about his position back in Downing Street following a week of rumoured leadership threats and backbench revolts.
He continued: “That’s a very good place to be and my party and my Government is completely united on the question of Ukraine and defence and security and the need for stronger relations with Europe on defence.
“I think there is real strength in the position I’ve now set out. I think the whole of the government is united behind that, I think actually it unites across the House of Commons… I accept Reform has a different agenda.”