UK-German Relations

I beg to move,

That this House has considered UK-German relations.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I requested that this debate take place today because tomorrow the German Bundestag will have its first reading in ratifying the Kensington treaty. That treaty is an important step in rebuilding our relationship with Germany after the post-Brexit negativity from the previous Government. The relationship has a long and difficult history but in times of increased international pressure it is more important than ever. In that regard, it is a pleasure to welcome the German ambassador Susanne Baumann as well as Anne Finger Harries and her team to the debate.

My personal connections with Germany date back to a childhood pen friend from Essen, who I began writing to over 50 years ago—we are still in touch. Later, when I was in my 20s, I went to Germany to train as an electrical engineer with AG Telefunken, working in the Frankfurt area. Like many others, I took advantage of an opportunity to live and work in Germany that is not available to young people today because of the folly of Brexit. Today, there are around 6,780 people from Germany studying in the UK and 2,074 Brits studying in Germany. However, they are students, not workers with freedom of movement, so it is a different scenario nowadays.

Across the United Kingdom there are twinning agreements between German and British towns and cities, not least in my own constituency, which is paired with the town of Recklinghausen in Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany. That partnership will celebrate its 70th anniversary this year. Naturally, relationships of this sort have their ups and downs; in recent history, Brexit stands out. That decision and the way it was conducted severely damaged people-to-people trust; it has weakened longstanding partnerships in private, public and economic affairs and made cross-border trade much more difficult, particularly trade conducted by small and medium-sized enterprises. It will, in my view, take a long time to mend the damage caused by Brexit. It is also a reminder that trust, once lost, is slow and difficult to rebuild.

Across British society, there is a wish for a closer relationship with the EU and with Germany. Recent polling shows that close to 60% of Britons believe that it was a mistake to leave the European Union, and shows that the majority of voters want to rejoin the EU. Despite increased travel restrictions, more than 70 million trips were made by Britons to Europe, close to 1 million of which were made to Germany.

In Parliament, the work of the all-party parliamentary group on Germany brings together politicians and stakeholders from both countries. To do that effectively, we work closely with our counterpart in the German Bundestag: the German-British friendship group. That allows us to bring politicians from both countries together to discuss shared priorities and projects and organise parallel debates such as this one. In that regard, I look forward to the UK parliamentary delegation’s visit to Germany, which is planned for May.

The momentum towards a closer Europe that is felt among Britons and in Parliament is also driven forward by this Labour Government. From our first day in office, we have worked on rebuilding our relationship with our European partners, be that through rejoining the Erasmus+ scheme, which gives young people across the UK and EU the opportunity to study and train on either side of the channel, or through the range of bilateral and multilateral agreements that this Government have signed and which lay out the road maps to further collaboration.

For example, the signing of the Trinity House agreement in October 2024 represents the most significant deepening of bilateral defence ties with Germany in decades. It signifies our commitment to European defence and especially to working in close accord with Germany. We are strengthening joint defence capabilities through a range of measures, such as committing to collaboration on big defence projects in, for example, aerospace. That was underlined by the first state visit by a German President in 27 years last December. President Steinmeier visited following the signing of the Kensington treaty, which defines six main areas of co-operation. They are all of paramount importance, but in this speech I want to focus on defence and economic co-operation. In the light of international instability, these seem to be the most pressing areas for this relationship.

Last week’s Munich security conference showed the strength of and commitment to a shared European defence. As the Prime Minister outlined in his keynote speech, in a crisis such as the current one, we have to stand together. We are doing that through agreements such as the Trinity House agreement and the Kensington treaty.

My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech. One of the most important areas for UK-German security co-operation is in tackling the full range of threats that Russia exposes us to as Europeans. It is very clear from discussions with German colleagues and others that we need a better doctrine on that and one that includes sharing information, attributing the attacks that are happening weekly across Europe and deterring them through a co-ordinated response. Does my hon. Friend agree that we can work on that bilaterally and through the triad with France, and use the lessons we learn to improve our partnership working across Europe as a whole?

I totally concur with my hon. Friend, who has had a distinguished military career in the RAF.

As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent horrors, there is growing awareness in the UK that we need to be able to defend ourselves and that it is not enough to contract our security out to the United States. This means that there is no British security without Europe and no European security without Britain. Partnership with Europe, but specifically with Germany, is delivering on that growing awareness.

Through the coalition of the willing, Germany, Great Britain and France have a wish to drive forward the defence of Ukraine, and yesterday we commemorated the fourth year since the start of the war. Utilising the DIAMOND—delivering integrated air and missile operational networked defences—initiative, the UK and Germany, along with other NATO allies, are bolstering NATO’s eastern flank and building an alliance ready to defend itself. Our shared values and the ideas defining that relationship are not universal and the knowledge that they might need to be defended by force has driven that paradigm shift. In Germany, we have a partner on whom we can rely, come what may. That is why the Kensington treaty is so important. It sets in stone the indispensability of this relationship and how we can further develop co-operation between our two countries.

I come now to the subject of economic co-operation. The other important aspect of this relationship is our trading and economic partnership. Germany is the UK’s second largest trading partner, closely following the United States. Trade to Germany accounts for 8.1% of total British trade, and after the low of Brexit, bilateral trade is improving, with a 1.4% increase in trade last year. The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry has more than 1,600 German member companies operating in the UK. They include industry giants such as BMW, Bosch and Deutsche Bank. About 160 of my constituents work in the German company Krempel, which is located very close to my constituency. German companies bring £50 billion of foreign direct investment into the UK, while British companies invested over £40 billion in Germany last year alone. That important relationship can be seen in much of our day-to-day life. For instance, the 94 new state-of-the-art Piccadilly line trains are produced by Siemens Mobility in East Yorkshire. That is a great example of our partnership in action, combining German engineering with British craftsmanship.

It is such a pleasure to speak in this debate with you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick) for securing this debate and to others who have supported it. As he says, it is taking place during a very important week: of the ratification in the Bundestag of the Kensington treaty.

I associate myself with many of my hon. Friend’s remarks, particularly those on town twinning, because the link between my city of Oxford and Bonn has been incredibly strong. It has gone from strength to strength, and it has involved local politicians, including myself. We have enduring friendships—including across party lines—between our two countries. It has included young football players from the council estate that I call my home, Rose Hill; in Bonn, they very much enjoyed the football, the friendship, and the Haribo factory visit.

I want to underline three areas where the collaboration between our two countries is particularly important, given the current circumstances. First, I underline what my hon. Friend said about industrial linkages. In my constituency, we see just how important they are. My hon. Friend mentioned BMW, which runs the Cowley Mini plant. That is a source of immense pride for my local community, provides good-quality jobs and supports a huge supply chain associated with those direct roles. It is an incredibly productive plant, and it is important that, wherever possible, we reduce barriers to joint working between our two countries when it comes to the kind of amazing advanced manufacturing taking place in Cowley.

I am encouraged by the fact that UK Ministers have spoken with their German counterparts about the European Commission’s “Made in Europe” plans. I hope that we can go further on that. The European Union’s desire to ensure that there is economic security is understandable, but it is important that that does not lead to a reduction in trade between the UK and EU—indeed, we need to increase trade. I have been encouraged by what I have heard in that regard, including on automotives and making sure that the UK is not cut out of those processes. I urge the Government to press ahead on that and the other measures that they have announced on energy costs, for example, which are important for a lot of the manufacturing in places such as BMW Cowley.

I am going to call the Front Benchers no later than 5.10 pm, so could Members keep their speeches to around five minutes?

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg—it is the third time today. I thank the hon. Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick) for setting the scene incredibly well. I am also pleased to see the Minister in his place. He has, if I may say so, been a very busy boy today in the Chamber and Westminster Hall, and it is always a genuine pleasure to see him in his place.

Germany is a high-value market for Northern Ireland, with bilateral trade generating over £1.1 billion in 2023. That being the case, the Northern Ireland Economy Minister frequently visits Berlin to promote sectors such as cyber-security, fintech, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing—all sectors that Northern Ireland excels in. As our biggest EU trading partnership, relations are imperative to our local economy. The Minister probably knows this already, but building upon that is really important for us.

I got to know Germany personally through my time as a part-time soldier in the Royal Artillery. That gave me an opportunity to go to Germany every second year and meet its people. I was always impressed by the people, who were always friendly and amenable. Germany was incredibly clean. It was back in the time of the iron curtain, which will age me—some people will ask what that was. However, that was the Germany that I knew and got to love.

Indeed, Invest NI, which is a branch of the Northern Ireland Executive, has maintained a presence in Germany for over 25 years to facilitate trade. Recent successes include Belfast-based Joulen securing a £4 million AI contract with German energy firm SonneNext. The links are clearly there, but it is equally clear that more can and should be achieved through them.

As people would expect, I am going to heavily promote Northern Ireland. It is an investor’s dream with low business costs and rates, greater connectivity, a highly skilled workforce and a great work ethic. It is little wonder that so many US firms are beginning to establish themselves in Northern Ireland. It is my feeling that our relationship with Germany can provide greater benefits to both the Germans and ourselves. The July 2025 UK-Germany treaty on friendship and bilateral co-operation provides a new framework for deeper partnership, particularly in defence and aerospace. As many Members will be aware, Northern Ireland’s aerospace and defence industry, which employs some 9,000 people, can benefit from the treaty’s emphasis on long-term industrial and security co-operation. That is something that we can build on. We can increase that because the threat in the world is high, and it is necessary that we do so.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I have been passionate about strengthening ties between the UK and Germany for most of my adult life, ever since I spent two years living in West Berlin in the mid-1980s—vor der Wende—before the wall came down. I lived in Kreuzberg, a neighbourhood that at that time was surrounded on three sides by the wall. It was an exhilarating, sometimes surreal, experience. It was a vibrant city, but also a cold war frontline, never far from the wall or the watchtowers beyond.

I remember having dinner at a neighbour’s flat on the evening of a 1 May street party that turned into a riot of car burning and looting sparked by a boycott of the national census. When we saw the sky suddenly light up, we thought at first that the riots had set a local supermarket ablaze. Then we realised it was East Berlin, and they were celebrating May day with fireworks, completely oblivious to what was happening just a couple of kilometres away. They were very different times.

Another memory I have from that time, which may seem a little bit odd—although perhaps not for an English politics geek, whose country lacks a written constitution—is discovering Germany’s proud basic law, the Grundgesetz, and learning about the role that Britain had played in bringing that into being. Germany is deep in my heart, as it is in the hearts of so many of my fellow citizens.

I have the pleasure of representing the constituency of Chelsea and Fulham, and Fulham is under the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which has long been twinned with the Berlin borough of Neukölln. I was very impressed, when we visited Neukölln, to see that it actually had the Hammersmith and Fulham crest in concrete at the front of their town hall, which shows a level of respect and seriousness towards local government that we can perhaps learn from.

Despite our strong relationship with Germany, we allowed something so precious to be damaged. After Brexit, the UK dropped from being Germany’s third most important trading partner to ninth, and German school exchanges to the UK fell by more than 80%. Our relationship did not break, but it was badly strained. We have to be honest about that, and be honest about the pain that we caused, not just to ourselves, but to the German side of our friendship.

My hon. Friend is making a passionate and heartfelt speech about his relationship with Germany. In the cold world of national security, one important area for collaboration is cyber-security, and perhaps also AI, quantum and other areas. That is something that European democracies should have a shared approach towards, because these areas have typically been owned by our American allies. Does my hon. Friend agree that the UK and Germany need to work together to shape offensive cyber-operations and encourage fresh thinking about middle powers and how we seek to counter the Russian threat?

Not for the first time, my hon. Friend puts it much better than I could. Cyber-security is an absolutely key pillar of the Trinity House agreement, and AI, quantum and semiconductor investment should be things that Germany and Britain work on together, side by side, to defend our joint security and also contribute to the security of our common European home.

We had the Trinity House agreement, and then, last July, we had the good news of the Kensington treaty, signed by Chancellor Merz and the Prime Minister and, as we have heard, ratified in the Bundestag this week— a great moment. That landmark document is not just about defence but about foreign policy, the economy, innovation, energy, agriculture, education and science. It includes 17 concrete priority projects—not words, but deeds. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr Bailey) mentioned the E3, the trilateral grouping of France, Britain and Germany, which the treaty also sets out to reinvigorate.

Beyond defence, I am glad to note that we are committed to developing offshore energy connections. Anyone who enjoys travelling to Germany, as I do, will also be delighted by the news that we are trying to build a direct rail connection between London and Germany in the next 10 years, which is terrific.

Of course, we also have the wider context, which has been referred to. The UK Government determined, from their first day, to reset the Brexit-damaged relationship with the European Union, and are making real progress in doing so. Germany has been absolutely central to that progress.

But the warmth of our friendship goes deeper than any treaty, as President Steinmeier showed when he visited us last December, making, as has been noted, the first state visit to Britain by a German Head of State in nearly three decades. His visit to the ruins of Coventry cathedral was a gesture of reconciliation that I think moved many of us deeply. I had the privilege of telling him personally how much his supportive words meant to us.

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick) on securing this important and timely debate. It is really good to have the Minister here covering another part of the world for a change, which I am sure he will appreciate.

Britain and Germany share one of Europe’s most significant bilateral relationships. It is grounded in common democratic values, strong economic ties and a shared commitment to European—and indeed global—security. That bilateral relationship continues to deepen, not only through NATO—I know, Mr Twigg, that you are very much at the forefront of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on behalf of our country, and that you will be working with your German counterparts in that regard—but also through other means: trade, research collaboration, climate policy and people to people connections.

Millions travel, study or work between our two countries every year. My personal relationship with Germany began 30-something years ago with a school exchange, and I still see that exchange partner, now my friend, every year in London or Hamburg. Hamburg is a city that has a strong history of Anglo-German relationships, whether through trade, the Navy or, more latterly, the Beatles.

We are now in a much more uncertain time, as other hon. Members have already suggested. In dangerous times, we need to come together more than ever. Germany and Britain have been doing that, but we need to commit that to words, so we can carry out the deeds we have talked about today.

The Kensington treaty is the most comprehensive of its kind between our two countries since the second world war, and I am proud that the Prime Minister and Chancellor Merz came to my Stevenage constituency later in the day on which they signed the treaty to visit Airbus Defence and Space UK headquarters. They did so for a good reason. At the heart of the treaty—one of its many priorities—is defence co-operation, and they could see that in Stevenage, where they saw the SATCOM military satellite communications system that is being built for the German armed forces. That highlights how Germany is choosing this country to deliver world-leading geo-satellite capability, demonstrating trust in our specialist strengths in space technology.

One of the high points of UK-German industrial relations was the Eurofighter Typhoon, so it is with great sadness that a young aircraft spotter, who enjoyed seeing Panavia developing something special like Eurofighter, is now observing the future combat air system and the global combat air programme growing apart. Rather than reflecting on that as a failure, could it not be an opportunity for collaboration, using a shared platform and shared Wingman success?

I hear my hon. Friend, who makes a salient argument. We have seen how some of our European neighbours, Germany and France, perhaps collaborate in a different way, and we will see whether that works out. I hope that the Minister will speak to his friends in the Ministry of Defence and the wider Government to offer to co-operate on more projects, such as the successful Eurofighter Typhoon project.

That is a powerful example of our industrial collaboration. Airbus, as the largest shareholder in the Eurofighter consortium—46%—and with its manufacturing in Germany, is only one piece of a much wider UK-German industrial ecosystem that spans aerospace, defence, energy, engineering and pharmaceuticals. I could go on.

We must look to the future as well. There are substantial opportunities in both space and air defence where British and German co-operation can meet shared capability needs and strengthen both our countries’ resilience. We need that more than ever, as other hon. Members have alluded to, given the threats that we face from Russia, China and beyond. More broadly, the ratification of the Kensington treaty gives us a clear framework to go further—from supply chain resilience to joint research and development, from green technology to defence innovation and from cyber-security to energy co-operation. Although I have not talked about it today, it also brings people together, and that is the most important bilateral relationship that any two countries can have.

For constituents such as mine in Stevenage and others across this country, these partnerships bring investment, skilled jobs and long-term industrial certainty, while contributing meaningfully to European security and global stability. My hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman) stole the words I was going to use, which I thought of when I was thinking about “Vorsprung durch Technik” and those adverts we saw as kids. Really, it is Vorsprung durch Freundschaft und Partnerschaft.

It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick) for securing this important debate.

I want to make a few comments about the relationship between Watford and Mainz, Germany. There was a twinning relationship between our town and Mainz for many years, which had a successful history, with parties going to visit Germany from the UK and vice versa and all the benefits of that cultural and political exchange. Sadly, that relationship died when the local authority abandoned the twinning relationship some years ago, which was a great tragedy. Not content with that situation, however, dedicated people within my local Labour party and our sister party in Mainz, the SPD, fostered relations and restarted the exchange, with visits taking place between our two towns again.

That has had great effect: we have received delegations from the SPD in Mainz many times now, and we have exchanged culture and experience. We have taken them to the football and the capital, and we have explained to them in great detail the history of the brewing industry in Watford, which has been convivially enjoyed. There have been reciprocal visits to Mainz, which were incredible. It was great to learn about the history of that city and what happened, for example, during its experience of bombing in the second world war and the incredible job that was done to rebuild it as it looked before. We are lucky enough to have a representative from there in the Public Gallery today—welcome; it is great to see you.

I have personal experience of the exchange. I particularly enjoyed a trip through a vineyard on a tractor-drawn cart, where I had a bit of the wares created on that particular farm—that is, if my memory serves me correctly, which it probably does not. At Christmas we had the pleasure of hosting the MP for Mainz from the Bundestag, Daniel Baldy. We were able to show him how Parliament works and give him a tour, which was extremely beneficial.