Sir Keir Starmer reiterated that the UK rejoining the EU is “not going to happen”.

Asked whether his attendance at the summit was the beginning of Britain returning to the bloc, the Prime Minister told reporters: “On the question of rejoining the EU, that is not going to happen.

“That question was answered when we had the referendum in the UK some years ago, so that’s settled.

“But I do think that we can have a better, closer relationship when it comes to trade and security.

“I’ll be discussing this evening on questions of energy and on trade and the economy, and I think that’s in the UK’s interests, and I believe it’s in the EU’s interests as well.”

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said: “Keir Starmer cosying up to the EU whilst he is engulfed in a scandal at home shows he has his priorities all wrong.

“Rather than thinking about taking hundreds of thousands more migrants and surrendering our fisheries, he should instead look West to rekindle a trade deal with America.

“Our country’s best days are ahead of us. But only if Keir Starmer stops kowtowing to the economically floundering EU and looks further afield. Britain deserves better.”

Sir Keir Starmer has denied breaking lockdown rules after it emerged he met a voice coach during the winter of 2020.

At the end of his press conference, he was asked whether he broke the rules that were in place during the pandemic.

“Of course not,” the Prime Minister replied.

Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK will “stay resolute” in its commitment to working with both the EU and the US because to do so is in the best interests of both Britain and global security.

“It’s really important that we work with both and we don’t see it as an either-or,” the Prime Minister said.

“It is in the best interests of the UK, but also the best interest I think in terms of global security and defence, that we continue to work both with the US and with Europe on these vital issues.”

He said there is a “huge amount of trade between the US and the UK, as we have with the EU”.

Sir Keir said: “That’s why it’s important I always act in the national interest, the best interests of the UK, so we stay resolute in saying that it’s important we work with both sets of partners, particularly in this volatile time.”

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted that the UK is “not choosing between” the EU and the US.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels alongside Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister was asked whether he would be willing to water down his reset with the EU to keep President Donald Trump on side in the US.

Sir Keir told reporters that he has “always been clear that both are important to us”.

“Now, that for me isn’t new, I think that’s always been the case and will be the case for many, many years to come,” he added.

He said that he had discussed issues such as trade and security with Mr Trump.

Sir Keir Starmer said it is “early days” when it comes to talks on tariffs with Donald Trump.

“On the question firstly of tariffs, obviously, it’s early days and I think what’s really important is open and strong trading relations,” Sir Keir said during a press conference with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels.

“That’s been the basis of my discussions with President Trump and I know that intense US-EU discussions are planned.”

“If you look at our vital interests, it’s really important that we work with both” says Keir Starmer.

The Prime Minister says the world is safer when the UK works with both the US and EU.

And he says the UK wants to continue trading with both as well.

“Now is the time to step up … it is not the time to pull back on either front,” he says.

The Prime Minister met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte before the dinner, and the pair are now holding a press conference. Questions are focusing on US President Donald Trump.

Sir Keir says he believes the UK needs strong relations with both the US and the EU.

Palais d’Egmont, venue of tonight’s glitzy dinner for Sir Keir Starmer and EU leaders, has hosted British Prime Ministers before – but it didn’t go well.

Ted Heath arrived on January 22 1972 to sign the treaty taking the UK into the Common Market, the EU’s forerunner, but proceedings had to be delayed after a protestor sprayed Sir Ted with ink on his arrival.

It took an hour for a new suit had to be found for the British Prime Minister, leaving the assembled European leaders twiddling their thumbs.

Eventually the signing went ahead, ushering in 48 years of membership which came to an end on January 31 2020.

Some mystery has always surrounded the woman who ruined Sir Ted’s big moment. She gave her name as Karen Cooper but turned out to be one Marie Louise Kwiatkowski and rather than objecting to the UK joining the Common Market she appears to have felt slighted over plans to redevelop Covent Garden, which she believed were based on proposals she drew up herself.

Starmer has met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels to about defence spending.

The pair will host a press conference soon.

Britain, for now, appears to have escaped Donald Trump’s trade tariff blitz, writes the Express’s Political Editor Martyn Brown.

Canada, China and Mexico have all been clobbered by the Republican strongman’s clunking fist.

The European Union is next on his hitlist. But amid the “I told you so” relief from the economic know-it-alls the B-word was conspicuously missing.

Read the full analysis piece here.

European Union foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said “we can have a more productive relationship with the United Kingdom”.

She told EU ambassadors on Monday: “They are not in the EU but they are still in Europe. And there is much we can still do.

“More co-operation on defence, for example, is vital and a logical next step.”

Later, as she arrived at a meeting of EU leaders, she warned Donald Trump there could be “no winners in trade wars”.

“If the United States starts the trade war, then the one laughing on the side is China,” she said. “We are very interlinked. We need America and America needs us as well.”

Fishermen have raged at the “no deal” Brexit agreement that continues to mean 1,700 EU vessels “plunder” Britain’s seas.

Fishing communities savaged politicians for the way the country’s exit from the bloc has negatively impacted them five years on.

Trade between the UK and US is “fair and balanced” despite Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs, Downing Street has insisted.

The new American President said the UK was “out of line” and claimed levies “might happen”, before targeting the European Union, who could expect something “soon”.

But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer trusts Mr Trump to keep his word, Downing Street said, after the US president suggested he thinks a deal can be “worked out” to avoid slapping tariffs on the UK.

The looming prospect of a trade war with the US threatens to overshadow Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s meeting with EU chiefs.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman has made it clear that the UK will not attempt to talk Donald Trump out of imposing tough tariffs on EU countries, despite Sir Keir Starmer’s desire to improve and “reset” our relations with the EU.

He said: “I’m not going to comment on another country’s trade policy. From the UK’s perspective we have a very strong trading relationship with the United States.”

In addition, we won’t criticise US tariffs on fellow Commonwealth nation Canada.

However the UK hopes that the President will choose not to impose tariffs on the UK – after Mr Trump said Sir Keir had been “very nice”.

It seems pretty obvious that this different treatment is a result of Brexit, as the UK would have to be part of the same tariff regime as other EU countries if we were still a member. However, asked if the PM saw this as a Brexit benefit, the spokesman declined to be drawn.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the US is an “indispensible ally” to the UK.

“We’ve got a fair and balanced trading relationship which benefits both sides of the Atlantic.

“It’s worth around £300 billion and we are each other’s single largest investors, with £1.2 trillion invested in each other’s economies,” he said.

Downing Street insists there are “no plans” to join any youth mobility scheme.

But the Prime Minister’s spokesman wouldn’t comment when asked directly if it has been discussed at a ministerial level.

Sir Keir Starmer trusts Donald Trump, Downing Street said after the US president suggested he thinks a deal can be done with Britain to avoid imposing tariffs.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman was asked if Sir Keir believes he can trust the US president to keep his word.

“Yes, the Prime Minister has had a really constructive early set of conversations with president Trump, and looks forward to working with him to deepen our trade, investment, security and defence relationship,” he said.

The US is an “indispensible ally” to the UK, he added.

“We’ve got a fair and balanced trading relationship which benefits both sides of the Atlantic.

“It’s worth around £300 billion and we are each other’s single largest investors, with £1.2 trillion invested in each other’s economies,” he said.

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has said there is still too little detail on what Keir Starmer wants from his planned ‘ambitious UK-EU defence and security pact’.

Senior Research Fellow for European Security, Ed Arnold, said: “The visit of the Prime Minister to an informal EU Summit – the first such visit since Brexit – is a critical moment in the government’s ‘reset’ agenda. Defence will dominate discussions. However, six months on from Labour’s election victory, there is still little detail on what the UK wants from an ‘ambitious UK-EU defence and security pact’, or the value that each side could gain, outside from the improved politics.”

“Therefore, the Prime Minister will need to outline concrete proposals and negotiation start points to entice the EU into putting political capital into pursuing such an agreement.

“Despite defence being a sensible area to pursue enhanced cooperation, it will not be easy to insulate it from other policy areas, and it should therefore be seen as one part of a wider – and more complicated – set of negotiations.”

European leaders have begun arriving for today’s meeting, branded an ‘informal retreat’.

It’s taking place at Egmont Palace in Brussels, where the leaders will discuss the future of defence.

The FTSE 100 has sunk by 1.3% following Donald Trump beginning his trade war with Canada and Mexico, and threatening to follow suit with the European Union.

French and German stock indexes have also called by more than 2%, while the Japanese Nikkei market is down 2.7%.

Saxo Bank analyst John J Hardy says markets have sunk so much because they had “failed to take Trump’s threats seriously until he actually delivered at the weekend.”

Former MP Greg Hands has spotted that the Slovenian embassy in London has begun flying the Canadian flag in solidarity with the North American country after Donald Trump slapped huge tariffs on the formerly friendly neighbour.

Former Tory Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace said Sir Keir Starmer cannot “lecture” European leaders on defence spending amid fury over Labour’s plans.

Sir Ben, the former Tory defence secretary, suggested the premier was in no position to make such a statement as the Government has delayed its decision to ramp up defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.He tweeted: “How can Keir Starmer go and lecture Europe on Defence when he refuses to commit to increased UK Defence spending? “The so called EU ‘Defence fund’ is not all it seems and the PM should not forget that NATO not the EU is the corner stone of our security.”

Here is what EU leaders will be doing today. Keir Starmer is only involved in the dinner at the end and is meeting Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte separately

09:30: Arrivals and doorsteps

11:00: Exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament

11:30: First working session among 27 EU Leaders

13:00: Working lunch with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte 15:00: Second working session among EU leaders

19:00: Working dinner with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer will arrive in Brussels, hoping to bolster ties on security and defence.

The Prime Minister will also be hoping a new security pact will form a key part of a wider “reset” with the European Union.

The Labour leader is understood to have wanted to separate the defence and security deal and announce it at the first UK-EU summit, to be held in Brussels in the spring.

But the EU has refused to seperate this, and is said to be making a youth mobility scheme a key concession.

EU leaders are expected to tell Sir Keir that proposals for a closer relationship will be treated as a package, meaning he will have to make concessions on their demands for greater fishing rights in UK waters and a mobility scheme for young Europeans.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer risks “restarting the Brexit wars” if he cosies back up to the EU.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says Sir Keir must not give Brussels any more money, accept the “compulsory transfer” of asylum seekers, agree to a reduction in fishing rights, allow the European Court of Justice to rule over the EU or compromise on the “primacy” of NATO.Sir Keir will urge EU countries to shoulder more of the burden of aid for Ukraine at the meeting in Belgium.

He will call on them to follow UK and US sanctions on Russia’s faltering economy and praise Mr Trump’s threat of further restrictions, which he will claim has “rattled” President Putin.