Keir Starmer, speaking in Poland, was urged to rejoin the EU (Image: Getty)
Former EU bureaucrat Donald Tusk has said he hopes for a “Breturn” of the UK to the bloc in a betrayal of millions of Leave voters.
Mr Tusk, now prime minister of Poland, was holding talks with Sir Keir Starmer on a new UK-Poland treaty to bolster both countries’ militaries and tackle people smuggling gangs.
Standing alongside the UK Prime Minister at a joint news conference in Warsaw, the Polish premier said: “For obvious reasons, we also discussed another issue, the co-operation between Great Britain and the European Union.
Sir Keir Starmer has been trying to forge closer ties with Europe (Image: Getty)
“I’m sure you will recall when we learned about the results of the Brexit referendum. I was head of the European Council … at that time. My first emotional reaction was to say: ‘I already miss you.’
“I remember our press briefings as if it was yesterday. I already miss you, that’s what I said.
“This is not just about emotions and sentiments – I am aware this is a dream of mine, that instead of a Brexit we will have a Breturn.
“Perhaps I’m labouring under an illusion. I’d rather be an optimist and harbour these dreams in my heart – sometimes they come true in politics.”
Critics have warned they fear that European allies forging closer military ties could weaken NATO and lead to a European army.
But Sir Keir said a defence summit attended by the UK in Poland earlier this week was “not about creating an army” but about strengthening work to meet security threats.
Asked about the E5 defence ministers meeting in Warsaw and whether he was a proponent of creating a common European army, the Prime Minister said: “The meeting that happened the other day is vitally important.
“That isn’t about creating armies. It’s about how we share our security concerns and build on what we’ve already got.”
Sir Keir said the UK-Poland treaty would cover “all aspects of the threats that we face and the steps that we must take to meet them.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Mr Tusk, he said: “This includes deepening ties between our defence industries.
“The UK has secured £8billion of defence deals in Poland over the last three years alone, and we’re going further today, opening a new joint programme office in Bristol to deliver our £4billion partnership, to deliver the next generation of air defence systems to Poland.”
He added: “We share an unbreakable commitment to NATO and an unbreakable commitment to Ukraine.”
On illegal migration, Sir Keir warned Poland was being targeted by Russia and Belarus in a hybrid operation.
Addressing the Channel migrant crisis, Sir Keir said he did not accept the argument that people smuggling gangs cannot be disrupted.
He added: “I’ve never accepted that, because I think a lot of the powers and techniques that we’ve used in relation to other gangs can be used for these gangs.
“That’s why we’re taking measures to use what were traditionally counter-terrorism powers against these gangs, and in recent weeks, introducing our plans for a sanctions regime which is modelled on what we do in relation to terrorists, and there’s been a significant number of arrests in recent weeks as well.
“So I don’t accept that that can’t be done.
The Prime Minister visited a former Nazi concentration camp as he travelled to Poland to meet with the country’s political leaders.
Speaking following his time at the camp, Sir Keir said: “Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of what I have seen in this place.
“It is utterly harrowing. The mounds of hair, the shoes, the suitcases, the names and details, everything that was so meticulously kept, except for human life.
“As I stood by the train tracks at Birkenau, looking across that cold, vast expanse, I felt a sickness, an air of desolation, as I tried to comprehend the enormity of this barbarous, planned, industrialised murder: a million people killed here for one reason, simply because they were Jewish.”
His wife Victoria, who is Jewish, joined him for the visit and was “equally moved”, said Sir Keir.
He added: “It was her second visit, but no less harrowing than the first time she stepped through that gate and witnessed the depravity of what happened here.”
The Prime Minister warned of the rising threat of antisemitism in recent years, including at home in the UK.
He added: “The truth that I have seen here today will stay with me for the rest of my life.
“So too, will my determination to defend that truth, to fight the poison of antisemitism and hatred in all its forms, and to do everything I can to make ‘never again’ mean what it says, and what it must truly mean: never again.”
Sir Keir has travelled to Poland after meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. The PM vowed the UK will “play our part” in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security following any peace deal with Russia.
