A Brexiteer lashed out at Sir Keir Starmer amid reports he is close to striking a defence deal with the EU at the expense of British fisherman. The Prime Minister has reportedly made major concessions to Brussels on fishing rights in order for UK firms to be able to bid for the new €150 billion EU security fund .

But former Brexit Party MEP Brian Monteith accused Sir Keir of preparing to capitulate to the bloc in the name of "greater co-operation". Writing in The Scotsman, he said: "The answer, we have already been told, is to give even greater access to foreign boats to our fishing grounds or any defence deal will be off – leaving most rational people asking what has fishing quotas got to do with protecting countries that don’t have a sea border or have haddock or herring in their typical diet?

"A youth exchange scheme will be claimed as a must-have, yet no one will explain how it might discourage Putin from invading another European country or why the many unemployed young Europeans should have advantageous access to our cash-strapped universities, our healthcare systems or the falling number of vacancies available to our own youth.

"Soon it will be revealed to the public that the Prime Minister's negotiation skills have triumphed for the benefit of our national interest – when it is a capitulation of the highest order.

"It will be claimed he has strengthened our security and defence by establishing a series of agreements – when in fact his achievement will be to hand over what the EU has always wanted – our military muscle and money, and our compliance and supplication to its own interests, world view and strategies."

It comes as the PM will host a UK-EU summit on May 19 as he pushes for a Brexit "reset".

Speaking today, Sir Keir said: "We want to reset our relations with Europe, to improve those relations.

"That's been brought into sharp focus in the last three or four months on the question of security and defence, we have to recognise we're moving into a new era where all Europeans need to step up on security and defence, and that's the discussions we're having with the EU and others.

"I also think on trade and the economy that we need to step up and reset.

"And so those are the changes that I hope we can make in an important summit that will be a milestone in May."