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... Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately set about repairing and rebuilding relations with the 27-member bloc after winning the July 2024 election that ousted the Conservatives after 14 years in power.

He hopes a deeper relationship with European neighbours can help fire up Britain's insipid economy and inject life into a premiership that has so far been deeply unpopular with the public.

His Labour government is preparing to introduce a bill that would provide a legal framework for his much-touted "reset" of relations with the EU.

Despite Labour's crushing majority in parliament, the move is expected to be fiercely opposed by the right-wing opposition parties -- the Conservatives, who took Britain out of the EU, and hard-right Reform UK, which leads opinion polls. ...