Keir Starmer is plotting ‘new Brexit betrayal’ on the tenth anniversary of Britain’s historic vote to leave the EU

Keir Starmer plans to use the tenth anniversary of the EU referendum to launch a new initiative to reverse Brexit.

Diplomatic sources told the Mail that the Prime Minister is planning a new ‘summit’ with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen close to the anniversary of the referendum vote on 23 June.

The two leaders spoke by phone on Wednesday night and No 10 said they “discussed their shared ambition to further strengthen the partnership between the UK and the European Union”.

The call came just hours after Sir Keir made his most pro-EU statement since the election, in which he claimed the benefits of aligning with Brussels were ‘too great to ignore’.

Ministers had initially planned a low-key meeting with Brussels to seal details of food and agriculture agreements signed last year.

But the Prime Minister said he now wanted to be much more ‘assertive’ and claimed that moving closer to the single market was ‘largely in our economic interests’.

Critics accused Sir Keir, who has previously pushed for a second referendum, of plotting a new Brexit betrayal.

The Prime Minister’s performance in negotiating the controversial £35bn deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius shows he lacks the skills to negotiate, Kemi Badenoch has warned.

The Conservative Party leader said: ‘The Prime Minister needs to make clear what he is giving up and what he is negotiating.

‘We were very clear that we didn’t want to pay any more money to the EU, we wanted control of our laws and borders.

‘What changes is the Prime Minister making? Is it taking us back 10 years to restart these wars about what to do with the EU?

‘Every time it negotiates, Britain loses.’

Asked about Sir Keir’s plans, Mark Francois, chairman of the European Conservative MPs Research Group, told the Mail: ‘Quelle surprise: ‘Mr Second Referendum himself wants to take us back to the EU – but now, without risking the second vote he has called for over the years.

‘Instead, next month’s Kings Speech will probably introduce ‘permissive’ legislation that will allow this European Labor Government to take us back to the EU, one industry or business sector at a time. They’re gambling so they can then “boil us like frogs” without anyone noticing – which would be a big mistake.’

Nigel Farage has warned that Reform would withdraw any Brexit deal signed by Sir Keir if he came to power, while Robert Jenrick said the Prime Minister was “trying to use the Iran crisis and his inability to do anything about it as a backdoor to pursue his long-standing ambition to return to the single market or get as close to it as possible”.

Cabinet minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, who is leading talks with Brussels, said ‘very significant progress’ had been made but conceded the UK would have to pay for access to the single market as well as adhering to EU rules.

‘I’m pretty confident we’ll get a deal on youth mobility, emissions trading and indeed the food and drink deal,’ he told Politico’s Westminster Insider podcast.

He added: ‘We are at a time when it is in the interests of both the EU and the UK to have a close relationship.’

Former Labor minister David Miliband told BBC Radio Four’s Today program that the government should seek a ‘dramatic’ improvement in relations with the EU.

‘We must take the kind of action that I think the Prime Minister has begun to describe,’ he said.

‘This is the starting point. This can’t be the end point.’