UK’s new foreign minister visits Poland for talks on Ukraine

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Polish foreign minsiter Radek Sikorski hosted the UK’s new foreign minister on Sunday at his mansion in Chobielin, some 300 kilometres northwest of the capital Warsaw.

Lammy is seeking to tighten UK relations with the European Union and stress that the new government is just as supportive of Ukraine in its war against Russia.

He said he was visiting Britain’s “key partners” in Europe — Poland, Germany and Sweden, all NATO members — for cooperation and security talks.

He also said that the UK’s military, economic, political and diplomatic support for Ukraine will remain unwavering, but that it wants a “reset” with Europe in the areas of climate protection, energy and migration.

Lammy was appointed on Friday after the Labour Party’s landslide election victory. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will fly to Washington on Tuesday for a NATO meeting.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X that the UK was an indispensable part of Europe and they were working with the British government to see how it could move closer to the European Union.

Lammy reiterated Starmer’s pledge not to rejoin the EU single market after British voters in 2016 voted to break from the political and economic union.

“Let us put the Brexit years behind us,” Lammy told The Observer. “We are not going to rejoin the single market and the customs union, but there is much that we can do together.”

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Sunday on Sky News that the UK should look for ways to improve trade with the EU and that removing some trade barriers was sensible. But he said the Labour government was not open to the free movement of people that was required as a member of the union.

PM to visit all four regions of UK

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is heading off on Sunday to the four corners of the UK as part of an “immediate reset” with governments in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Starmer, who said he has a “mandate to do politics differently” after his party’s landslide victory, will meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney in Edinburgh in an effort to “turn disagreement into cooperation.”

“That begins today with an immediate reset of my government’s approach to working with the first and deputy first ministers,” he said. “Meaningful co-operation centred on respect will be key to delivering change across our United Kingdom.”

While each of the devolved nations in the UK elects members to the House of Commons in London, they also have their own regional parliaments.