Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to move the UK closer to the EU after polling showed the public believe Britain’s trade and economic links with Europe are more important than equivalent ties with the US.
The survey by JL Partners on behalf of the Good Growth Foundation think-tank has been touted by pro-EU Labour MPs as further evidence that Starmer should pivot towards Europe following the election of Donald Trump.
JL Partners polled 2,024 adults in Great Britain last week on their attitudes to America and Europe.
The findings – shared exclusively with i – show that voters consistently rank Europe as more important to the UK than America across a range of areas.
The disparity is most marked when it comes to commercial links. When asked “is Europe or the US more important to the UK” in “terms of trade”, 58 per cent chose Europe, compared to 34 per cent who chose the US.
Asked which is more important to Britain “economically”, 57 per cent opted for Europe compared to 34 per cent who went with the US.
Respondents also said Europe is more important than the States to the UK “diplomatically” (47 per cent to 42 per cent), “on foreign policy” (51 per cent to 39 per cent) and “politically” (53 per cent to 36 per cent).
The results show that only Reform UK voters rank the US as more important to the UK across the categories, with all other parties’ voters – including the Conservatives – seeing Europe as more significant.
The polling found that while most people think it is in the UK’s “best interests” for the Government to be “close to the US government”, following Trump’s election, 48 per cent of people said the country should “focus more” on its relationship with Europe, with only 18 per cent believing Britain should focus more on the US.
The findings have particular weight at a time when Starmer’s government is both pushing a “reset” of relations with the EU and scenario-planning for Trump’s return to the White House in January.
With the Republican president-elect threatening tariffs and the possible withdrawal of US military aid to Ukraine, influential Labour voices are calling on Starmer to forge closer links with European allies.
A European diplomatic source told i that while the mood music of Starmer’s reset is positive, it was time for the UK to put its cards on the table about what it wants from a renegotiated Brexit deal and for talks to proceed with “urgency”.
A senior MEP said there was a renewed “enthusiasm” in the UK-EU relationship but agreed it was now time to give “content” to the warm words.
If the UK wants improved access to the European market, a key ask from Brussels is likely to be a deal on youth mobility, which would allow under-30s to move to the UK from the EU to work and study and vice versa.
The diplomatic source said they were confident a youth mobility agreement would form part of the eventual package, though there was frustration at the UK Government’s reticence over such a scheme.
The source said youth mobility was being wrongly conflated with a total return to free movement. They added that if ministers are worried about a negative public reaction to such a scheme they should “get out and sell it”.
Stella Creasy, the chair of Labour Movement for Europe (LME), told i: “The public are not daft. They understand you can fight many things in life but geography is not one of them. Our trading relationship with our closest partners is the one that they recognise needs work.”
Creasy said LME has “more MPs than the Conservative Party put together” and is “pushing for Parliament to get on with sorting this out.”
“There are plenty of things that we could do that would help now [with the trading relationship] and be relatively straightforward and welcomed by Europe,” she said.
Praful Nargund, the director of the Good Growth Foundation – who was Labour’s parliamentary candidate against Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North at the general election – said: “Our research shows that politicians of all stripes should remember post-Brexit Britain is not anti-Europe.
“The public recognises the importance of maintaining a solid relationship with the US, but dislikes Donald Trump and can see the UK’s future is dependent on our relationship with Europe.
“Whether it be on trade, politics, economics or diplomacy – Europe is largely recognised as Britain’s most important ally.”
Other figures calling on the Government to mend fences with Europe include the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, who used his Mansion House speech last week to say the UK must “rebuild relations” with the EU “while respecting the decision of the British people” on Brexit.
i has previously reported that the UK Government will try to strike a deal with Trump to avoid tariffs while also attempting to negotiate a better Brexit settlement with the EU.
However, on Monday the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged that a deal in one area could affect the other.
He told the House of Lords International Agreements Committee: “To state the obvious, tariffs on UK goods entering the US would be a difficult thing for us to have to contend with. The US is a major and important trading partner for the UK, £300bn of bilateral trade.
“But compared to the EU with over £800bn of bilateral trade, clearly if there are things that we are offered or asked to do that would result in an adverse relationship on the European side, we’d have to weigh the consequences of that.”
JL Partners polled 2024 adults between 13th and 14th November.
