How the EU and UK can now work together

By Jake Benford

Jake Benford, Europe expert at the Bertelsmann Stiftung: „Both sides should quickly define common strategic priorities for the reshaping of EU-UK relations.“

Labour’s landslide victory means the UK is bucking the trend of a Europe-wide shift to the right and towards political inertia. Under the new government, the UK and the EU can rapidly deepen their cooperation, writes Jake Benford in this Opinion. However, this would require the EU to show more flexibility, strategic ability and political coherence.

With the victory of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in the UK general election, a long series of political misjudgments and personal shortcomings by the British Tories were harshly punished after 14 years in power. An absolute majority of 172 is reminiscent of Tony Blair in 1997, while on the Conservative side 11 cabinet members lost their constituencies, including both former Prime Minister Liz Truss and future hopefuls like Penny Mordaunt.

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