The prime minister is backing the deal as it would allow British firms to access the contracts funded by the loan
Good morning. In the UK many MPs will be spending the bank holiday campaigning for the elections on Thursday, but Keir Starmer is in Armenia, where he has announced that he wants the UK to join the EU’s €90bn (£78bn) loan for Ukraine.
Starmer is attending a European Political Community summit in Yerevan. The EPC is the group set up four years ago comprising all the EU countries, plus almost all the other European countries that are not EU members. Mark Carney, the Canadian PM, is also attending (on the grounds, presumably, that in the light of the geopolitical upheavel caused by Donald Trump, the Canadians now count as honorary Europeans.)
The €90bn loan for Ukraine is the one that has been long talked about, but which only became possible after Viktor Orbán, the pro-Russian Hungarian PM who was vetoing it, was kicked out of office last month. The advantage for the UK of joining (besides boosting military support for Ukraine) is that it would allow British firms to access the contracts the loan will fund.
Speaking to the media as he arrived at the summit, Starmer said:
