Trump has left Starmer with no choice – it’s time to get tough

Today marked a significant change in Sir Keir Starmer’s approach to dealing with Donald Trump.

After months of trying to ingratiate himself with the most capricious and unpredictable of US presidents with obsequious praise and offers of garlands for a man who is tearing up the international rule book, Sir Keir looks like he has finally had enough.

There is no doubt that his responses to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch during Prime Minister’s Questions represented a new tone and were the first time that Sir Keir has been openly hostile to the man in the White House.

The “I will not yield” line on Greenland was the sort of toughness and evidence of a backbone that many Labour backbenchers have been crying out for from their leader.

But Sir Keir went much further than that. We got a first real glimpse of the prime minister’s “Mr Angry face” as he basically accused Trump of trying to use Chagos to blackmail him into backing off on the Greenland issue.

It is worth going through his words again:

“President Trump deployed words on Chagos yesterday that were different to his previous words of welcome and support when I met him in the White House,” he said.

open image in gallery

“He deployed those words yesterday for the express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain in relation to my values and principles on the future of Greenland.”

The PM repeated: “He wants me to yield on my position, and I’m not going to do so.”

Not only was he accusing Trump of being dishonest and erratic, but it also reflects French president Emmanuel Macron’s claim that the US president is a bully trying to beat friends down to get his way.

It was a remarkable change of tone, especially when you consider that the PM’s message on Monday during his emergency conference had been far more measured and attempting to walk a diplomatic tightrope.

But it is quite possible that the recent remarks from Trump have persuaded Sir Keir that there is no need to mollify his language now. In a way, the US president has left the PM with no choice.

Trump, in the past 24 hours, has called his Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius “stupid” and told journalists that Starmer needs to “fix his country”.

open image in gallery

His rambling press conference at Davos saw the president pour scorn on the UK’s “catastrophic” energy policy, encouraging windfarms and stopping drilling.

The US president has abandoned diplomatic niceties for open contempt.

The entente cordiale between Trump and Starmer, forged in late 2023 at a private dinner in Trump Tower in New York, has evaporated.

The problem for the prime minister, though, is that while it has freed him up to be tougher, it has also all but wrecked his chief foreign policy of being the bridge between the US and Europe.

Without that, the UK’s role as well as Starmer’s personally is greatly diminished. Perhaps, though, Trump is now looking ahead to helping his friend and ally Nigel Farage to fill that space.