Is Sir Keir Starmer’s cautious ‘reset’ with Europe enough to undo the damage done by Brexit? | Andrew Rawnsley

Moving in small steps risks aggravating both Europhiles and Europhobes while doing little to help lift the economy

Every prime minister has their verbal tell-tales. “Reset” is a favourite Starmerism. When he visited Berlin last week to pave the way to a bilateral co-operation treaty, the prime minister told us he was there as part of a “wider reset” in Britain’s relations with Europe. There was the same message when he journeyed on to Paris for a grip, grin and chat at the Élysée Palace with Emmanuel Macron. I see why he’s fond of the word. “Reset” conveys new thinking, a fresh start and altered priorities, while being conveniently vague about the precise direction of travel or the intended ultimate destination.

Downing Street was largely pleased with the positive optics of those forays across the Channel. The encounters with the chancellor of Germany and president of France generated a more upbeat vibe than the rest of a summer punctuated by violent disorder on the streets of Britain, controversies about importing Labour cronies into Whitehall, turbulence within the party about restricting winter fuel payments and Sir Keir’s “winter is coming” speech in the rose garden of Number 10 warning that “things will get worse before they get better”. That overdid the gloom even for those in sympathy with the Tory-blaming, expectations-managing strategy behind such depressive talk.

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