Cameron says ‘heat and and anger’ has come out of UK-EU relationship

Lord Cameron said the “heat and anger” has come out of the UK’s relationship with the European Union and that they can be “friends, neighbours and partners”.

The Foreign Secretary said he thought the “ad hoc” nature of the co-ordination between Britain and the bloc was working well, including in the response to the Ukraine war.

He also warned that if the EU and US fail to agree support packages for Kyiv, it would be a “Christmas present” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lord Cameron, who resigned as prime minister after losing the 2016 Brexit referendum, told the Lords European Affairs Committee: “It’s been interesting coming back to see how it’s working and how problems are being fixed and opportunities are being taken.

“I think a lot of the heat and and anger has come out of the relationship. It’s now much more functional and I think it’s functioning well.”

The appointment of the former leader of the Remain campaign to Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet angered some Tory Brexit hardliners.

Lord Cameron told peers on Thursday: “The way I see it is, you know, we’ve decided not to be a member, but we can be friends, neighbours and partners, and we make that partnership work as well as we can. And I think its delivering in all sorts of ways.”

The UK should “make the most” of its post-Brexit trading agreement with the EU, and not be “trying to reopen it and change the nature of it”.

“We’re not suddenly going to reopen free movement or go back into the customs union or any of those things,” he said.

He said Britain should be “canny and tough” in a review of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, but declined to lay out a list of “things we’d like to fix”.

He said the political dispute preventing the US Congress from passing a package of wartime funding for Ukraine and Israel was “frustrating” and expressed hope

“The best Christmas present we could give to the Ukrainians is to pass both those packages and if we don’t, we’re giving a Christmas present to Vladimir Putin and we shouldn’t be doing that.”

He also said Britain’s foreign policy tilt towards the Indo-Pacific “isn’t just a phrase.

“It’s a proper thought-through policy with a number of… real things that are happening,” Lord Cameron told peers, pointing to the UK’s accession to the CPTPP trade bloc, Hiroshima accords with Japan, and Aukus submarine agreement with the US and Australia as examples.

Elsewhere, Lord Cameron defended the Government’s Rwanda Bill and described an interview in which the Israeli ambassador to the UK voiced opposition to a two-state solution in the Middle East as “disappointing”.

Also on Thursday, the Foreign Secretary met Saudi Arabian foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan.

“The UK and Saudi Arabia are important partners, committed to working together on shared priorities,” Lord Cameron tweeted.

The pair discussed “the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza, regional stability, and wider global issues”, he said.