French officials said to believe UK being pushed back into the EU fold after being weakened by Brexit. Emmanuel Macron is reportedly set to tell Sir Keir Starmer his appearance at a summit of EU leaders on Monday is proof Brexit has failed. The French president views the prime minister as the “demandeur”, a leader humbled into returning to the EU fold because Britain has been weakened by Brexit, senior diplomats have reportedly said.

“The Brexit project, breaking away from the EU to create a global Britain, didn’t work. We thought it wouldn’t work because the UK is European, geographically and economically. Brexit was a project for a stable and prosperous world, but in a complicated world, obviously the UK will be closer to Europe,” one source told The Times. Ahead of the visit, Sir Keir said that Brexit is “settled”, but added that “I do want to see a closer relationship on defence and security, on energy, on trade and our economy”.

“And that is what we’re working on,” the PM said. But Brussels diplomats have said Donald Trump’s return to the White House, and the looming threat of a global trade war, have heightened the need for Britain to return to the EU’s orbit. At a meeting of the 27 EU leaders on Monday, Sir Keir will place defence at the heart of his post-Brexit reset with Brussels, calling on European allies to double down on their support for Ukraine.

He will challenge EU countries to ramp up their defence spending to keep the continent safe from Vladimir Putin’s “campaign of sabotage and destruction”. But while the PM wants to focus on defence and security, he is also facing questions about other parts of the UK’s relationship with Europe, notably over fishing and a youth mobility agreement. A senior UK government source has indicated Britain is closer to agreeing to a deal on youth mobility, which would allow under-30s to study, work and travel across the European Union for a number of years.

The scheme, a key demand of Brussels in Sir Keir’s bid for closer ties with the EU, would run for up to three years under concessions being considered by the bloc. In a sign Labour could ease its opposition so far to a scheme, a government source told The Telegraph “we will look at anything that the European Union does put forward”. Ahead of the meeting on Monday, Sir Keir was warned Brussels will play tough in negotiations about closer ties, with Sir Keir facing the same fate as Boris Johnson in talks with the bloc – with tough concessions demanded in return for any new relationship.

Sir Keir will be warned that progress on issues such as defence and security is not an option unless he is willing to give ground on issues such as EU access to Britain’s fishing waters and a youth mobility scheme. In a boost for Sir Keir ahead of the meeting, Poland’s foreign minister said that while Brexit is not reversible, the EU would like to have Britain as “a major partner” on security and defence.

Radosław Sikorski told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We watch British opinion polls and it appears the majority of the British public now think Brexit was a mistake. I don’t think it is a reversible mistake, the UK is a very valued partner, we miss you, and in particular in the security environment, Britain has been very forthright on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We would like to have Britain as a major partner in the defence field.”.

Sir Keir will call on European leaders to keep up the pressure on Putin by standing firm with sanctions that have crippled the Russian economy since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And he will tell allies to keep up military support to Ukraine, ensuring Volodymyr Zelensky is in the strongest position possible as Donald Trump’s return to the White House increases the prospect of a negotiated end to the war.