Helen Pitt

And all EU countries are feeling the effects of the war in Iran and the ongoing fallout from the argument over the Strait of Hormuz.

And it all comes after a fairly relentless barrage of criticism from Donald Trump since he returned to the White House.

And then in the background, you've got the rise of China, a belligerent Kremlin.

I wonder how much all of these global events are feeding into a sort of greater sense of unity within the EU, this feeling that whatever differences they have, they are stronger together when coming up against these massive challenges.

And that was at the point when Trump was talking about taking Greenland, wasn't he?

Which galvanised European nations really to come to Denmark's aid and tell Trump that that wasn't on.

No, certainly.

And you mentioned Starmer there saying that he's found his metal in the past couple of weeks.

And the other thing that Starmer seems to be doing with increasing confidence is

is talking about wanting to get closer again to the EU, to, if not rejoin the gang, to at least become better friends with our European neighbours.

And this week, The Guardian broke the story that Labour are planning to bring in new legislation that will forge these closer ties between the UK and the EU.

Can you just explain what this bill is setting out to do?

And this bill, isn't there some controversy over the fact that it will deny MPs the right to vote on which of these 76 rules or any future rules that the UK will comply with?

It'll sort of speed up the process to such an extent that once again, Brussels is calling the shots and our own parliament is not sovereign.

The irony.

Quite.

And how have the opposition parties responded to the prospect of this latest bill and how Labour is essentially planning to bypass MPs later down the line?

As you would expect.

So do you think then that perhaps the likes of Andrew Griffiths have got a point when it comes to the sovereignty question, if we are just going to let the EU set the rules?

And how well do you think that this will play politically, especially with the May local elections coming up?