Sir Keir Starmer and Pedro Sanchez to boost UK/Spain trade cooperation in London meeting

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will meet his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchez, in No.10 Downing Street today, where the two leaders are expected to sign a bilateral agreement to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.

Spanish media reported on Tuesday that a key focus of the agreement will be boosting trade between the UK and Spain, which has increased since 2016 despite the UK’s departure from the EU.

According to the UK Government, Spain was the UK’s ninth top export market in 2024 for goods and services, with UK exports worth £20.1 billion to Spain in that period, 0.4% down from the preceding 12 months and accounting for 2.3% of all UK exports. In the 12 months ending March 2025, exports rose to £20.5m, up 1.5% over the preceding 12 months.

According to the same data, Spain was also the UK’s sixth largest partner for imports of goods and services, which reached £44.5 billion in 2024, up 8.3% over the preceding year and accounting for 4.9% of all UK imports.

The meeting in Downing Street comes after the May summit in London at which the UK and the EU agreed a deal to reset their relations after Brexit to boost collaboration across multiple areas ranging from trade to defence.

Sir Keir and Mr Sanchez are also expected to discuss key international issues including migration and the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

The meeting this afternoon follows the June 11 announcement of a political agreement on a UK/EU treaty for Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relations with the bloc.

That agreement was reached after a tortuous negotiation process that also involved Gibraltar and Spain, and the legal text of the treaty is expected to be completed this autumn ahead of ratification by the UK and EU parliaments.

Today’s meeting is not about Gibraltar, though the two men will likely welcome the progress and signal their continued commitment to finalising the treaty as soon as possible.

Ahead of the UK/Spain meeting in London, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo spoke to Stephen Doughty, the UK Minister for Europe.

No.6 said this was a “catch up” discussion in preparation for today’s meeting – Mr Doughty has been closely involved in the final stages of the negotiation and has detailed knowledge of Gibraltar – and the shared sentiment was to finalise the treaty “as soon as possible” and move to implementation.

Mr Doughty also underlined a message he has repeated both privately and publicly since taking office, encapsulated in a phrase: “Nothing about you without you.”

Sir Keir and Mr Sanchez have met before but this is the Spanish Prime Minister’s first formal visit to No.10 Downing Street, other than as part of a NATO meeting hosted by former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The last Spanish Prime Minister to hold a bilateral meeting with a UK Prime Minister in Downing Street was the Partido Popular’s Mariano Rajoy, who met with Theresa May in December 2017.

Mr Sanchez, who became Prime Minister in 2018, never met any of the other four UK Prime Ministers since – Mrs May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – in Downing Street.