In Washington, amid jokes about how Sir Keir Starmer was about to bring football home, Joe Biden delivered a serious message to the new Prime Minister: get “closer” to Europe. Starmer didn’t need telling.

“I kind of see you guys as the knot tying the transatlantic alliance together, the closer you are with Europe, we know where you are, you know where we are,” the US President told Sir Keir in the Oval Office during the US-hosted summit to mark the 75th anniversary of Nato.

Biden’s endorsement for Labour’s project would have been welcome for the new premier as he makes his debut on the world stage. Sir Keir wants to ease post-Brexit trade friction, boost security cooperation and make it easier for Brits to work in the European Union, all without reversing Brexit.

Sir Keir used the summit in DC to drum home the message, taking Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Defence Secretary John Healey and European relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds along with him.

After a spot of football-watching diplomacy on Sunday in Germany, Sir Keir will have another opportunity next week to make his case to continental leaders when he hosts the European Political Community in Oxfordshire. The summit at Blenheim Palace will be an unsubtle reminder of a British victory over the French. It was also home to a young Winston Churchill.

There, Sir Keir will welcome around 50 fellow leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and President of the European Council Charles........

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