Britain will have to pay £1bn for closer ties with EU as Brussels tells Keir Starmer to pay up for first time since Brexit

Britain will have to pay £1billion in order to have closer ties with the European Union.

Sir Keir Starmer has been told by Brussels to pay up to £1billion a year by Ursula von der Leyen's European bloc in order to gain further access to the EU's single market.

They expect the concession to be made in principle at a summit between European leaders this summer.

One European diplomat told The Times: "If the UK wants further integration they must 'pay to play'. That is not unusual."

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The UK is set to start talks to join the European Union's £78billion loan to Ukraine in order to support Kyiv and deepen defence ties with Europe.

The Prime Minister is currently in Armenia's capital Yerevan and is expected to tell fellow European leaders that Britain wans to work more closely with them.

The EU expects Britain to pay for his aim of "deeper economic integration" and his aim to align the UK with the single market.

In March, European leaders said the UK should be forced to pay into European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) for the first time since Brexit it if wanted to participate in the EU's single market for electricity.

Europe also called for a "permanent mechanism" for an "appropriate financial contribution" from the UK for any further access to the single market.

Ministers are currently evaluating which sector could benefit from further integration, withe chemical, pharmaceuticals and cars seen as priority.

One senior European diplomat said Brussels would not allow the UK to "cherry pick", and would insist on a Swiss-style deal, tying it into contributing to annual EU budgets.

Switzerland has paid 375million euros a year to the EU's social cohesion fund in exchange for access to the single market.

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Applying a similar ratio of Bern's GDP to Britain's GDP, it is suggested the UK could be asked to pay in the region of £1billion.

Dame Priti Patel, Shadow Foreign Secretary, suggested taxpayers would be paying for European institutions, "with no end date and no democratic mandate".

She said "At every turn, this prime minister goes to the negotiating table and comes home empty-handed, having paid handsomely for the privilege."

A Labour source told The Times: "The only deals the Tories seem interested in are ones with Nigel Farage."

Britain is currently negotiating alignment on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, which would put the UK in alignment for food and drinks, making it easier to be imported for them to be imported to and from the EU.

Such a deal could put oven chips and cakes at risk, with concerns raised that EU regulations could dramatically impact food producer's supply chains.

Sir Keir, has indicated he want to more closely with the EU on defence, as calls for an increased military budget have increased.

Dame Priti criticised Labour for its long-delayed Defence Investment Plan, adding that his party "continues to fail our armed forces".

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