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Watch as Sir Keir Starmer and European leaders attended meetings and posed for a family photo at a major summit in Oxfordshire on Thursday, 18 July.
Leaders from the 47-member European Political Community (EPC) gathered at Blenheim Palace as the new British prime minister attempts to reset the UK’s relationship with its neighbours after Brexit turmoil.
Sir Keir will use the EPC event to push for action to secure the continent’s borders as he steps up efforts to tackle the UK’s asylum backlog.
The EPC was set up in 2022 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine so European leaders could meet for informal talks.
More than 100 Home Office staff will be redeployed from working on the now-scrapped Rwanda scheme to focus on a “rapid returns unit” to send people with no right to be in the UK back to their home country.
The PM, who will will join a session on migration co-chaired by Italy’s right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni, has called for continent-wide action to tackle the international “people-smuggling webs”.
Sir Keir’s government is also seeking a security pact with the EU and intends to cement European nations’ support for Ukraine in its war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
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