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Is Keir Starmer about to trade his principles for Trump’s friendship?

As the prime minister faces growing pressure to align with Trump, he risks compromising his values, the NHS and the UK economy, writes Femi Oluwole

Monday 20 January 2025 11:16 EST
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Suella Braverman praises Trump as she arrives in Washington for inauguration

All the big names, from Snoop Dogg to Mark Zuckerberg, seem to be abandoning their principles to kiss the ring of the returning president, Donald Trump. And many are worried that Keir Starmer might copy them.

In fact, nearly two-thirds of Labour voters say that, with Trump about to enter the White House, they back closer post-Brexit connections to Europe – a warning to the prime minister not to cosy up to the US and forget what matters closer to home.

This new poll is likely to pile pressure on Starmer to accelerate talks to improve UK-EU relations as the world braces for Trump’s second coming.

And it should force the PM to ask himself: yes, America is a major trade and security partner of the UK, but is dancing to Trump’s tune really worth it? Is keeping Trump happy with us really worth the damage it would do to the UK, economically, medically and morally?

Let’s look at what Trump is offering us: He told his voters he would be imposing blanket tariffs on all imports to the United States. The UK does 17.6 per cent of its trade (21.7 per cent exports) with America, so that would clearly affect us. After Trump’s election, the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy estimated his tariffs would cut our economy by 0.8 per cent. That is obviously much less than the four per cent cost of Brexit, as estimated by the government’s Office of Budget Responsibility.

A more recent survey of international economists says his tariffs would have an “insignificant effect” on the UK. This is partly because most of our exports to the US are in services, which aren’t affected by tariffs, unlike physical goods. So cosying up to Donald Trump might protect our trade with the US, but it certainly shouldn’t be prioritised at the expense of 46.7 per cent of our trade, which is with the EU.

But what about playing nice with Donald Trump so we can get that UK-US trade deal the Brexiters promised us nine years ago? You’ve heard people talk about the NHS being under threat from Trump in any potential trade deal.

Here’s why: In 2018, Trump said that he would “end the global freeloading”, where “foreign governments extort unreasonably low prices from US drug-makers”, which he said meant “Americans have to pay more”. The NHS pays a third of what the US pays for its medicines. And Trump said he would make addressing this imbalance a “top priority with every trading partner”.

But is the person who channels everything involved in “America First” really going to give us a trade deal without compromising our NHS? That’s the kind of trade deal that the British right wing wants Starmer to tap-dance for.

Some will argue that as a nuclear power, America is a critical security ally. To which I would counter: Are they, though? Isn’t a security ally meant to make you safer?

Consider this: American policy on the Middle East involves the sale of billions in military equipment to countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel. Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen has killed well over 300,000 people since 2015. Israel has killed more than 46,700 people in Gaza since October 2023, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry.

People in that part of the world have watched US and British weapons kill hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim people in the last 10 years – and that doesn’t even include the Iraq War. And with Trump threatening to unleash “all hell” on the Middle East if Israel’s hostages aren’t released, he’s not improving that image. The basic requirement to be called a “critical security ally” is that they make us more safe, not less.

It also damages British society for our prime minister to be cosying up to Trump, given that a civil court deemed that he sexually assaulted E Jean Carroll. What does it say to British women to see their prime minister backing a man found liable for sexual abuse?

What does it say to British Muslims to see their prime minister supporting someone who called for them to be banned from the US? What does it say to British Black people to see their prime minister defending someone who told police not to worry about injuring suspects in a country where police disproportionately shoot black people?

This should be a no-brainer. Priti Patel and Kemi Badenoch have admitted that the Conservatives “had no plan” to make Brexit work for the UK and avoid the damage. Badenoch has also said Britain is “getting poorer”. Reform Party politicians have admitted that the Brexit they were created to promote has failed. Its candidates in Stafford have said that Brexit has made us poorer.

There’s nobody left in the UK parliament who could credibly argue against a reversal of Brexit – and we now know that 64 per cent of Labour voters want Starmer to prioritise fixing our relationship with the EU over moving closer to Trump, too. Surely undoing £100bn/year of Brexit damage is worth more than a few selfies with a convicted felon...

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