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November 7, 2024 - 7:00am
How things change in just a few years. In November 2020, Keir Starmer welcomed Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump, writing in The Guardian that “the American people have voted for a better, more optimistic future: for unity over division, hope over fear and integrity over dishonesty.”
But in the early hours of Wednesday, as the reality of Trump’s victory in the 2024 election became clear, the Prime Minister issued a terse congratulatory statement on X for the President-elect, and said he looked forward to “working with you in the years ahead”. At Prime Minister’s Questions, he labelled a recent dinner with Trump a “very constructive exercise” — the favoured adjective of the bewildered Trump interlocutor whose hopes for a normal conversation have been steamrolled.
Since 2020, Starmer’s Labour had looked to Biden’s victory and policies as a model for campaigning and progressive governance. In Opposition, Rachel Reeves embraced Bidenomics, citing the “emergent global consensus” on the economy at an event in Washington. Ed Miliband also stated that he aspired to “match the ambition of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act” and that he was drawing on advice from the architects of the American plan. David Lammy, meanwhile, courted Biden’s advisors, and even said that “my greatest political friendship is with former president Barack Obama.”
While Labour is angry and anxious about Trump’s return to office, preparations have been made to some extent. Indeed, the party — in Opposition and Government — devoted a lot of energy through 2024 to building relationships with former members of the Trump administration and Republican members of Congress. Ben Judah, a British journalist and think-tanker in Washington, joined Lammy’s team at the start of the year and facilitated meetings with policymakers in the US, including Mike Pompeo and Robert O’Brien — Trump’s former secretary of state and national security advisor, respectively.
And despite his long record of anti-Trump statements, Lammy has sought to build a relationship with incoming Vice President J.D. Vance in particular, who described the then Shadow Foreign Secretary as his “English friend” on a panel at the Munich Security Conference in February. “We’re both from poor backgrounds, both suffered from addiction issues in our family which we’ve written about, both of us are Christians,” Lammy later explained about his friendship with Vance. “I’ve met him on a few occasions and we have been able to find common ground and get on.”
Labour’s relationship with Trump and his orbit has always been precariously contingent on the evasion of two subjects, however. The first was the evident ideological incompatibility between a European social democratic party and a nationalist, conservative movement. When Labour won the general election in July, Vance joked in a speech that the victory meant the UK was now the first “truly Islamist country” to have a nuclear weapon. Lammy dismissed the quip from his “friend”, but the potential contradiction was stark.
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SubscribeI’m always gobsmacked when politicians insult foreign leaders, especially when they are supposed to be allies and when there is power imbalance in the relationship. Other than smug self satisfaction, how does this benefit you?
Indeed – and yet both sides are at it.
I popped along to The Guardian today… Even by their standards the level of vitriol in the articles I read blow one’s hair back. And on X some low level social media ‘investigator’ staffer from the BBC is tagging Elon Musk saying that she has repeatedly tried to contact him and wants an interview. Laugh out loud.
I spent a good part of yesterday perusing the leftist media (Guardian, Vox, The Atlantic). I’ve not had that much fun in ages!
Snap! I spent most of yesterday luxuriating in a bath of lefty tears whilst getting seriously inebriated on nectar of lachrymose liberal. And the best part is I woke up this morning feeling absolutely fantastic!
The idea that Labour would send their people to aid the Kamala campaign is hilarious! This Labour Party ran against a conservative government that was so bad it was a miracle that they retained seats at all.
And as for Lammy. Good grief. How did he, of all people in the Labour Party, become Foreign secretary?! He is a clown car of a politician. One gaff after another.
His comments regarding a US President should surely have excluded him the role of foreign secretary. Proof, if any was needed, that this Labour Party is incapable of forward planning.
Next time I hear the words “special relationship” I might well self combust.
Don’t worry. It makes us cringe too
That applies to Ireland – it’s called tax dodging – and long ago left the UK.
A friend of mine who is a professor in cold war history describes the “special relationship”, which almost every western country claims to have with the USA, as being like a load of drunk guys who all think the beautiful girl sitting at the bar fancies them most of all.
The ‘Special Relationship’ continues… but the meaning of ‘special’ has changed, and the relationship has changed.
I suspect Starmer & Co will have to be satisfied with receiving a Christmas card each year.
The “special relationship” was only ever that of a pimp to a streetwalker. No prizes for correctly attributing the respective roles.
I believe the original quote is delivered by Bill Hayden in Tinker, Tailor (TV series) but don’t know if it was written by Le Carré.
In an abusive relationship it is was the abuser tells the abused and what the abused believe contrary to all the evidence.
You could hear it in 2tier’s voice yesterday “He told me I was special and that he loved me”
The US under “Irish” Biden was no friend of the UK. Now Trump is America’s choice – fair enough – but he too looks set to continue the trend, worsened by the clueless empty shirts in power here. British voters are caught in the crossfire: sorely let down at home, with poor political choices, while allies barely live up to the name. Our options have narrowed, while the EU offers little hope either asit slides into irrelevance. Ideas anyone?
Worth remembering that Trump is transactional in nature. If he thinks being closer to the U.K. is in Americans interest, he is very likely to ignore historical slights from ideological halfwits.
We can hope
That’s the thing. If Trump sees value in the relationship, he will overlook the personal insults. I’m not sure there’s any value there for America though.
We can but hope
Good point. That ups the entertainment value of the Trump-Starmer interaction even further.
A cut-and-thrust-dealmaker meets a bloodless-technocrat-lawyer.
They say opposites attract, but that this will blossom into a wonderful renewal of the Special Relationship That Hasn’t Been Special For At Least 15 Years is something I very much doubt.
He might want a new golf course?
Student union politicians doing student union politician things.
I heard the left wing commentaries saying the grown ups were in charge in Westminster now. It seems my skepticism was appropriate.
The Trump administration should simply refuse to meet Lammy.
Starmer’s allies on the global stage are disappearing fast, and if Scholz goes in the next elections, a reasonable probability, then he is going to find himself and his particular brand of politics very isolated indeed.
One good hard farmers strike and blockading the countries RDCs would take the food off every shelf in every supermarket in the land; it might even bring down the government.
I’ve said this before, but I do think that there is a real possibility that despite its huge majority this government could last less than one term; they are simply so inept.
It’s a good opportunity to reshape the Special Relationship by at best making it a supply and demand relationship- purely transaction, and quid pro quo to the extent that Britain gets something out of it for a change.