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Starmer offers his 'warmest congratulations' to Trump on his inauguration
For the record, here is the statement Keir Starmer released overnight about President Trump’s inauguration.
On behalf of His Majesty’s government and the United Kingdom, I would like to send my warmest congratulations to President Donald Trump on his inauguration as the forty-seventh president of the United States.
For centuries, the relationship between our two nations has been one of collaboration, cooperation and enduring partnership. It is a uniquely close bond. Together, we have defended the world from tyranny and worked towards our mutual security and prosperity.
With President Trump’s longstanding affection and historical ties to the United Kingdom, I know that depth of friendship will continue. The United Kingdom and United States will work together to ensure the success of both our countries and deliver for people on both sides of the Atlantic.
Since our first meeting in September, the President and I have spoken about the need to deepen and invest in the transatlantic relationship. We will continue to build upon the unshakeable foundations of our historic alliance as we tackle together the global challenges we face and take our partnership to the next level focused on shared opportunities ahead for growth.
I look forward to our next meeting as we continue our shared mission to ensure the peace, prosperity and security of our two great nations. The special relationship between the United Kingdom and United States will continue to flourish for years to come.
US will want Chagos Islands deal reversed, Trump’s ex-national security adviser suggests
Good morning. Donald Trump becomes president of the United States for the second time today and in Westminster, as across the rest of the word, supporters are giddy with excitement, while opponents feel this is a moment for epoch-defining dread. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and Britain’s leading Trump evangelist, has got so carried away that he has told an interviewer he thinks there is a 20/25% chance that he could be prime minister by the time Trump leaves office (January 2029). It’s not impossible; but few other people would put his chances as high as one in four.
Most people in Labour politics, privately at least, regard Trump with horror, but the government has to work with him and Keir Starmer, who has invested a lot of effort in trying to establish a decent personal relationship with the new president, has issued a statement sending Trump his “warmest congratulations” on his inauguration. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, was on the Today programme this morning and, when asked if he he had changed his mind about Trump since the days when he used to denounce him in the strongest possible terms, he said his approach to foreign policy was grounded in “progressive realism”, taking the world as it is. He went on to praise the Trump he met when he and Starmer had dinner with him in New York in September last year.
The Donald Trump I met … had incredible grace, generosity, very keen to be a good host, very funny, very, very, very friendly, very warm, I have to say, about the UK, our royal family, Scotland, his relationship with Scotland, his mother. That was the Donald Trump I found.
There was a survey this week – 70% of the world welcomed Donald Trump coming to power, 70% of the world, much of that worried about authoritarian actors, actually quite like the fact that Donald Trump keeps them guessing.
And we have to reckon with the fact 70 million Americans voted for him, [his vote share] up in African Americans communities voting for him, up in Latinos, up in young people. We have to reckon with that truth.
But Lammy was confronted with a more awkward truth about Trump when the presenter, Nick Robinson, reminded him what Lt Gen HR McMaster told the programme about Trump and the UK’s Chagos Islands deal. McMaster, who was national security adviser for Trump for about a year early in his first term, said the British deal to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius would have to be renegotiated because of its impact on the UK/US airbase at Diego Garcia. He said:
I think surrendering the Chagos Islands, or putting the Chagos Islands in a situation where they can easily be coerced, by the Chinese Communist Party for example, I hope it’s a position that we see reversed here by Donald Trump, and by the UK government.
Farage has repeatedly claimed, based on his contacts with them, that the incoming Trump administration is unhappy about the Chagos Islands deal, but few people who are part of Trump’s team have said that on the record. McMaster is not joining the incoming administration, but his comments suggests Trump will want a rethink.
Asked about McMaster’s claim, Lammy said the last government opened talks with Mauritius about transferring sovereignty because legal rulings meant it was getting harder and harder for the UK to maintain the status quo. He went on:
The Pentagon, the State Department and the White House under the last administration pored through this deal. There was an interagency process, [they] said it was a good deal. It’s right and proper that the new administration is able to consider it.
But having gone through the deal in detail, it’s the right deal to keep the global community safe, and I emphasise the importance of that military base and those assets on Diego Garcia that we’ve been working together with with the United States now for all of my lifetime.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Prof Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, gives evidence to the Covid inquiry in its module covering vaccines. In the afternoon Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, the former deputy CMO, and Prof Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, give evidence.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Angela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
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