The UK has an “unshakeable commitment” to Nato, Sir Keir Starmer has reiterated.

Re-emphasising his commitment to the UK’s nuclear deterrent at a press conference at the EPC summit on Thursday, the prime minister said he had also made this clear at the Nato summit in Washington earlier this month.

He added: “We stand full square on Nato, as a Labour government, proud signatories to the original Nato treaty. We are as committed today, it’s an unshakeable commitment to Nato, my own personal assessment is that Nato is as important if not more important today than it’s been for many years.”

European leaders can have a “renewed confidence” in their relationships with the UK, Sir Keir Starmer said, as he sought to build bridges after years of Brexit troubles.

He wants to strike a security pact with the EU and address some of the trading problems under the current Brexit deal.

“We can only make progress on the issues that so many people care about, like illegal migration and national security, If we have the maturity and leadership to reach out a hand to our European friends,” he said.

Sir Keir added: “I’m really pleased that most of the leaders, if not all of them, are leaving here with a sense of renewed confidence in their relationship with the UK.”

A key sign of his desire to repair relations was a public commitment that he would “never withdraw” from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), after the Conservatives had flirted with the idea of pulling out of the agreement.

Renationalising the railways would fulfil Labour’s election promise.

In this Politics Explained piece, The Independent’s associate editor Sean O’Grady takes a closer look at how the new government plans to do it:

The system around vetting former ministers when they enter new jobs to prevent a revolving door of appointments is “bust and needs fixing”, a watchdog has said.

Lord Pickles – chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) – urged the Labour government to make “long overdue” improvements to the rules within its first weeks.

Keir Starmer declared that Britain was “back on the international stage” as he sought to put the UK at the centre of European co-operation and build closer ties with the continent.

Just 13 days into his premiership he scored his first major success as European leaders hailed his plan for a new era in post-Brexit relations.

Hosting them at a summit in Oxfordshire, he also suggested he was open to dealing with the small boats crisis by processing migrants offshore, saying he was a “pragmatist”.

My colleagues Kate Devlin and Tom Watling have the full report on today’s proceedings at Blenheim Palace:

Sir Keir Starmer accused the previous government of a “dereliction of duty” on migration, during his press conference at the end of the European Political Community summit.

The PM said: “We’ve got record numbers this year. We can’t switch that in 24 hours, one week. Two weeks ago today we were still knocking on doors asking people to vote for us. We can’t turn it around that quickly, but the frustration that I have in relation to prisons is across this as well.”

He added: “I’m pleased that we are making up ground, we will continue to do it at pace, but we have been left in a really difficult position yet again by this government which has, it’s been a dereliction of duty because border control is about our national security.

“And rather than address it with a serious answer, they addressed it with a gimmick. The gimmick didn’t work, and we’re left with a very serious situation to try and turn around.”

Sir Keir Starmer has claimed there is a “real sense that Britain is back on the world stage” as he claimed fellow European leaders “are leaving here with a sense of renewed confidence in their relationship with the UK”.

The prime minister told a press conference at Blenheim Palace: “It’s been a very successful session today of the EPC.

“I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to host it and to be able to host it here in this splendid place, with the weather – which we can’t take the credit for – has added to the real sense that Britain is back on the world stage.

“And I’m really pleased that most of the leaders if not all of them are leaving here with a sense of renewed confidence in their relationship with the UK, with a real understanding of what we mean by a ‘reset’, and I think looking forward to deepening the bilateral relations that we have with all of them.

“That’s been very much a theme of today.”

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “build on the relationship that Rishi Sunak put in place” with Italy’s hard-right premier Giorgia Meloni.

Praising his predecessor, the prime minister said Mr Sunak has “been incredibly statesmanlike and generous since the election”, adding: “And I thought he made that very clear in the way that he replied to the King’s Speech yesterday.

“The relationship that he struck up with Italy was important. We’ve got a long relationship between our two countries and we’ve both had the opportunity today to make clear that we want to continue with that strength of relationship.”