The Daily Populous Saturday February 14th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by Imaginary-Ad-7919

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Britain’s “Brexit years” are over, Sir Keir Starmer will tell world leaders on Saturday as he calls for closer security ties with Europe – and less reliance on Donald Trump’s United States.

After transatlantic tensions flared following the US president’s repeated threats to take Greenland from Denmark, the prime minister will call for Europe to curb its dependence on the US, while praising the continent as a “sleeping giant” whose economic and military might can defeat its enemies.

After surviving the most tumultuous week of his premiership so far, including an attempt to oust him from office, Sir Keir will also warn that turning inwards, as the UK did during Brexit, would amount to “surrender” in a perilous era.

The prime minister will make his remarks at the Munich Security Conference, where last year the US vice-president JD Vance stunned delegates by accusing Europe of “retreating from some of its most fundamental values” and claimed that the greatest peril facing the continent was not Russia or China but “the threat from within”.

Since then, President Trump has sent shockwaves through Europe with repeated threats to take over Greenland, as well as directing insults at various leaders. He has also falsely accused European Nato allies, including the UK, of avoiding the front line in the war in Afghanistan.

As he departed for Munich on Friday, the US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who is attending on behalf of the Trump administration this year, warned of a “new era” in geopolitics.

open image in gallery The prime minister will call for Europe to curb its dependence on the US ( PA )

In his speech, Sir Keir will say he is setting out “a vision of European security and greater European autonomy that does not herald US withdrawal, but answers the call for more burden-sharing in full, and remakes the ties that have served us so well”. However, he will also praise the contribution made by the US to European security, and say that it remains a key ally.

Sir Keir will describe Europe as “a sleeping giant”, saying: “Our economies dwarf Russia’s, 10 times over. We have huge defence capabilities.” But he will warn that, too often, this has amounted to less than the sum of its parts, with gaps in some areas and “massive duplication” in others. And he will call on the continent to make the most of its defence capabilities, including via closer cooperation on defence between the UK and the EU in order “to multiply our strengths and build a shared industrial base across Europe that can turbocharge our defence production”.

Sir Keir’s speech comes less than three months after talks on Britain joining the EU’s new €150bn (£130bn) Security Action for Europe rearmament fund broke down amid financial disagreements.

The Labour leader will also hit out at Reform UK and the Green Party, describing them as “the peddlers of easy answers on the extreme left and the extreme right” and claiming that the future they offer would see “the lamps ... go out across Europe once again”, a reference to the chilling remark made by the then foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey before the First World War.

open image in gallery Marco Rubio, pictured with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, is also due to address the conference on Saturday ( AP )

Sir Keir will say: “It’s striking that the different ends of the spectrum share so much. Soft on Russia and weak on Nato – if not outright opposed. And determined to sacrifice the longstanding relationships that we want and need to build, on the altar of their ideology.

“The future they offer is one of division and then capitulation. The lamps would go out across Europe once again. But we will not let that happen.”

On Friday shortly after his arrival in Munich Sir Keir held trilateral talks with Germany’s Friedrich Merz and France’s Emmanuel Macron where he emphasised the need for cooperation in defence.

The prime minister said: "There's no UK security without European security. There's no European security without UK security. So we have to work together."

World leaders gathering in Munich for the annual security conference are being greeted by a report that savages the policies of Mr Trump and warns that global security structures risk being turned to rubble. The Munich Security Report 2026, titled “Under Destruction”, says that the world has entered a period of “wrecking-ball politics”.

“Sweeping destruction – rather than careful reforms and policy corrections – is the order of the day,” it reads. “The most prominent of those who promise to free their country from the existing order’s constraints and rebuild a stronger, more prosperous nation is the current US administration. As a result, more than 80 years after construction began, the US-led post-1945 international order is now under destruction.”

Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “Keir Starmer has a habit of handing away sovereignty, and now he is once again rolling the pitch for greater EU integration and less control for the UK. Britain is uniquely placed to help bring the US and Europe together, ensuring Nato is as strong as possible.

“We must not be overdependent on America, but neither should we offer Europe a blank cheque, prepared to accept any and all costs, as Labour are. Starmer’s repeated surrenders to China show he lacks the backbone to stand up for Britain on the international stage. His weakness has undermined the special relationship and put our country in danger.”

imjustsurfin on February 14th, 2026 at 10:24 UTC »

There is not a single Brexiteer - not one - who has given me a single example of how leaving the EU has tangibly, and measurably, improved their lives.

It's been 6 - SIX - years.

And they have nada. Zip,

RCP90sKid- on February 14th, 2026 at 08:41 UTC »

Brexit & Trump are cousins. Spawned from Cambridge Analytica and Russian propaganda.

Imaginary-Ad-7919 on February 14th, 2026 at 08:12 UTC »

Europe has pretty much had its fill, people are tired of the chaos and just want stability again.