Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s attitude to Nato mean a closer relationship between the UK and the European Union is a win-win, Keir Starmer’s former Brexit minister has said.

In his first major newspaper interview since leaving office, Nick Thomas-Symonds backed Andy Burnham’s calls to rebuild ties with the EU, saying the prime minister was “absolutely right” to explore options to change the Brexit settlement.

“It's about safety, prosperity and security for the UK and the EU together,” the ex-cabinet minister, who led the “reset” talks with Brussels until Mr Burnham became PM in July, told The Independent.

“We can do better, so much better. And we can do better in a way that isn't about one side losing, one side winning.”

His intervention came as Mr Burnham prepares to meet with EU leaders in Brussels on Friday 20 November to sign the latest Brexit reset deal.

The agreement is expected to be a “launch pad” for the prime minister to look at options for much more radical moves to reverse Brexit, including possibly rejoining the EU after the next election. Options are expected to be published in the prime minister’s 10 year plan ahead of the Christmas recess.

But the deal on Friday is expected to involve the UK aligning with the EU’s regulations on food and drink to remove damaging border checks. There will be a deal on students through the EU’s Erasmus scheme and a youth mobility scheme.

Mr Thomas-Symonds, who was speaking to as part of its campaign, said it’s important “that we do look at where we are – because the world and the international picture is very different now”, a decade on from the Brexit vote.

“We’ve seen the war in Ukraine… We’ve also seen a shift within Nato… (which mean) our links with our European partners on defence become ever more critical,” he said.

Asked if the events of the last decade mean we are now in a “win-win” moment with the EU, he said: “I really do think that”.

Within the EU, the prospect of closer relations has been welcomed – not, he said, “because of a sense of nostalgia” but because, at this moment in history, “being close to other partners in the world that share your values is a very, very important and mutually beneficial thing”.

Last week, the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator, ex-French PM Michel Barnier, also expressed his hope that greater ties between the UK and the bloc could be a “win-win”, and described Brexit as “lose-lose”.

Mr Thomas-Symonds, who was a key ally to Sir Keir Starmer throughout his premiership, also suggested the Starmer government would have started a similar process as Mr Burnham after next week’s EU-UK summit.

The meeting is designed to bring the UK closer to the bloc and could see the UK clinch a deal on young people’s mobility as well as on a host of other issues, including food and drink checks, as part of the Labour government’s plans for a “reset”.

“Had I, and indeed the previous prime minister, been able to complete this phase, then – and I said this earlier in the year – we would then have a debate about the next Labour manifesto and the red lines that we had been elected on in 2024.

“Now we've all, because of the way events have happened, we've started that debate around the same time as the summit.”

Labour’s so-called red lines currently rule out any return to the customs union, the single market or freedom of movement.

Meanwhile, Mr Thomas-Symonds said he was “optimistic” about the prospect of UK cooperation working with the EU on its new Made in Europe industrial policy.

Ministers fear the UK could be hit by the plan, intended in part to protect European industry from cheap, high-quality, Chinese goods such as electric vehicles (EVs).

“I am optimistic, because I think there is a mutual benefit,” he said. “I think that there are so many firms that are within the EU that are in supply chain with British firms that don't want to disrupt those supply chains. So when we talk about made in Europe, I think it is Europe as in the EU plus its trusted partners, of which I think most certainly we are one.

“So I'm optimistic, but as with everything else, I'm sure there'll be a lot of hard work over the next few weeks on it.”

He also said the UK should open discussions with the EU now on the potential options for a close relationship to avoid a rerun of 2016’s “fantasy debate”.

“We can't have a debate by supposition anymore. We can't have a debate by assumption. It has to be, well realistically, here are the different things that we're talking about. What would they mean in practice? And always as well, we need to be straightforward, I think, about the trade-offs.”

He added: “The EU is there to have a discussion with… so you'll have officials on both sides of the Channel will be looking at the different options.”

Asked if the talks could help avoid rows over £350 million on the side of a bus, he said “yes” but added that it would also allow the UK to look at the different possible options, which include rejoining the EU or being part of the single market or customs union, “realistically”.

He also revealed he was “surprised” by the extent of some of the Brexit red tape.

Last week revealed that the cost of trading with the EU had topped £7bn in just four years.

Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “I was given an export health certificate and it was 22 pages long and it required 56 wet stamps… I wouldn't have been surprised by the idea that there was more red tape. I mean, that was obvious… I was surprised by the extent of some of it.”

A parliamentary committee has warned that there will be a cost to the reset deal with the UK having to accept a new EU regulation every 12 hours on average.

The committee found that the deal on food and drink is likely to require the UK to adopt “at least 780 pieces of EU law” each year.

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