Taoiseach Simon Harris gifts Donegal GAA jersey to Prime Minister Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer has been gifted a Donegal GAA jersey from Taoiseach Simon Harris.

In return, the new Prime Minster presented Harris with a Downing Street whisky decanter set.

Before Euro 2020, which was played 12 months later due to the pandemic, Starmer posted a photo on what was then called Twitter, saying: "Finally back in training! Still got a few months before Gareth Southgate announces the squad for the Euros..."

The photo showed Starmer wearing a Donegal training top. He later revealed that the top he was pictured in was bought whilst on honeymoon with his then-new wife Victoria in Ireland back in 2007.

"Donegal is a special place to me and my family and across this house,” he said of Donegal following the Creeslough Tragedy, which claimed the lives of 10 people in Octoboer 2022. “The people there are in all of our thoughts."

Sir Starmer accepted an invitation to visit Dublin in September as Mr Harris insisted a reset of Ango-Irish relations is “real”. The two leaders met at Chequers - near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire - on Wednesday evening and pledged to hold annual summits to “deepen and re-invigorate co-operation”.

Mr Harris is the first international leader to visit the UK since Sir Keir was elected as Prime Minister.

Speaking after their meeting, the Taoiseach said: “I am really pleased to confirm that the reset I have been speaking about in terms of Anglo-Irish relations is real. It is under way and it is meaningful.”

Mr Harris said a number of topics had been discussed at their meeting.

He said: “We discussed Northern Ireland, we discussed issues in relation to the EU and the UK’s relationship with the European Union. We discussed international issues in relation to Ukraine and Gaza.

“I must say I am really pleased that the British Prime Minister has accepted my invitation to have a return visit to Dublin on September 7.

“We have also agreed to put in place a structure where the British and Irish governments each year would have a summit led by the Prime Minister and myself where we could focus on key issues.

“From that summit, a work programme would flow which we would task various ministers with taking forward with their counterparts. This, I believe, is all really significant and substantive progress.”

England are due to play Ireland at the Nations League football international in Dublin on September 7. Mr Harris said he left the meeting convinced that the Prime Minister wants a closer relationship with the European Union.

Before their bilateral meeting, Sir Keir and Mr Harris had enjoyed a pint of Guinness and discussed relations between the two countries.