Biden says US and UK ‘best of allies’ and backs Starmer’s bid to be closer to EU – live updates

Joe Biden has called the US and UK the “best of allies” as Sir Keir Starmer met him at Nato’s 75th summit for the first time since winning the election.

The US president backed Sir Keir’s ambitions to take the UK back closer to the European Union as the prime minister has started the process of renegotiating Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

Mr Biden said the UK was “the transatlantic knot” that ties Nato together with the EU during a heads-of-state event at the alliance’s summit.

Sir Keir also hailed the “special relationship” between the UK and indicated that Ukraine could use UK-supplied long-range missiles to strike military targets in Russia during their war, before meeting president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Meanwhile, shadow minister James Cartlidge has accused the government of causing “massive uncertainty” for the UK’s armed forces after failing to set a deadline for increasing defence spending.

Sir Keir said he is committed to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence “within our fiscal rules” but he cautioned that he needed to carry out a review before setting a timeline to reach that goal.

Armed forces minister Luke Pollard said it would not be completed until next year.

Joe Biden described the US and the UK as the “best of allies” as he appeared to back Sir Keir Starmer’s push for the UK to forge closer defence ties with Europe.

In his first face-to-face meeting with the newly elected British prime minister, Mr Biden called the UK the “transatlantic knot” binding the two continents together.

“I kind of see you guys as the knot tying the transatlantic alliance together, the closer you are with Europe. We know where you are, you know where we are.” Mr Biden said.

Sir Keir wants an ambitious new UK-EU security pact to