Prime Minister Keir Starmer is treading a fine line on UK-EU relations as hard-right populists make gains at a time when Brexit and immigration remain toxic issues in Britain.

The Labour leader will host European Union chiefs in London on Monday for a major summit designed to progress a deeper relationship between the UK and the bloc than the one negotiated by the previous Conservative government.

But Starmer will be wary of giving ammunition to arch-Eurosceptic Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, while also conscious that US President Donald Trump views the EU negatively.

"He's walking two tightropes at the same time," said British foreign policy expert Richard Whitman, describing immigration as a "salient" issue in the UK and Trump's attitude to the EU as "hostile".

"Starmer is balancing this big international issue and also the domestic politics one, and that's what makes it so tricky for the prime minister," the politics professor told AFP.

The anti-immigration Reform was founded in 2018 -- two years after........

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