Labour plans EU defence pact but faces French resistance

Ed Arnold, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, warned that Labour would have to “bend” to secure an agreement with Brussels, adding: “They want an ambitious proposal because it sounds good, but ultimately the more ambitious the proposal the more difficult it’s going to be to negotiate. “They want a bespoke agreement, so on all of this Labour are probably going to have to give quite a lot of leeway to the EU in terms of structures in order to get that concession. It’s not going to be a practical relationship at the start – it’s going to be political. It’s going to be quite a lot of PR, and if they want anything ambitious they’re not going to get that any time soon.”