Illustration by Jonathan McHugh / Ikon Images “This Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe, by putting Britain at the heart of Europe.” To prove his sincerity for his premiership-salvaging speech yesterday (11 May), the Prime Minister had dispensed with the tie and rolled his sleeves up. But this was what young people call “vibes”. It was not policy. Clearly Keir Starmer would like to see the UK have a closer relationship with the EU. Doing so, however, will mean going beyond empty platitudes. And platitudes we have had in abundance. “Make Brexit work,” declared the Labour manifesto of 2024, an implicit recognition, if nothing else, that Boris Johnson and his successors had failed to “get Brexit done”. Yet, two years on, and even Starmer’s slogan is proving tougher to turn into reality than its drafters might have hoped. The search for a stable equilibrium in UK-EU relations goes on.…