EU summit agreement could symbolise post-Brexit reset and a much-needed win for PM

This EU-UK summit has for months been openly billed by Sir Keir Starmer's Downing Street as a hugely significant moment for this government.

The Labour leader promised in his 2024 election manifesto that the UK would sign a new security pact with the EU to strengthen cooperation and improve the UK's trading relationship with the continent. Since winning power in July, he has embarked on a charm offensive across European capitals in a bid to secure that better post-Brexit deal.

Monday is when the PM makes good on those promises at a historic summit at Lancaster House in London. Read more: What exactly could the UK-EU reset look like? There, the EU and UK are expected to sign a security and defence partnership, which has taken on a new sense of urgency since the arrival of President Trump in the White House.

It is an agreement that will symbolise the post-Brexit reset, with the PM, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa also signing off on a communique pledging deeper economic cooperation. But, rather like the torturous Brexit negotiations I covered for years in London and Brussels under Conservative prime ministers, Sir Keir's post-Brexit reset went down to the wire.

Discussions continued over night as the two sides snared up over details around fisheries, food trade and youth mobility. It's not that both sides did not want the reset: the war in Ukraine and the spectre of the US becoming an unreliable partner have pushed London and Brussels closer together in their common defence interest.

???? Click here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts ???? Fishing and youth mobility - the two snags But the pressure for this deal weighed more heavily on our prime minister than his European colleagues. He's been talking for months about securing a reset and better trading relationship with the EU to bolster the UK economy.

His need to demonstrate wins is why, suggests one continental source, the Europeans let talks go to the wire, with London and Brussels in a tangle over fishing rights - key demands of France and the Netherlands - and a youth mobility scheme, which is a particular focus for Berlin. In the end, the UK allowed EU fishing boats access to British waters 12 years.

"The British came with 50 asks, we came with two - on fishing and the youth mobility scheme," says one European source. EU sources say Brussels had offered a time-limited deal to lift checks on animal products - replicating London's offer on fisheries - but the UK is reluctant to do this as it leaves too much uncertainty for farmers and supermarkets.

Scotland election weighing on talks A deal on food products, known as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) goods, would be a boost for the economy, with potentially up to 80% of border checks disappearing, given the breadth of products - paint, fashion goods, leather as well as foods - with an animal component. Any deal also means the UK would have to align with rules made in Brussels and make a financial contribution to the EU to fund work on food and animal standards.

Both elements will trigger accusations of Brexit "betrayal.