UK leader Starmer seeks to learn from Meloni’s tough migration policies at meeting in Rome

Associated Press

ROME (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has met with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome. The center-left British leader says he wants to learn how her nationalist conservative government has achieved “dramatic declines” in the number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores by boat. The visit on Monday came after at least eight seaborne migrants died off the French coast over the weekend. Starmer has pledged to stop people fleeing war and poverty by trying to cross the English Channel in flimsy and overcrowded boats. Support for Ukraine is also on the agenda for the trip. It comes as Starmer tries to reset relations with European neighbors after Britain’s acrimonious departure from the European Union in 2020.