Starmer offers ‘hearty congratulations’ to Trump in first call since election win

The Prime Minister is seeking to secure close ties with Donald Trump after he was elected president for a second time.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (PA) (PA Wire)

Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to Donald Trump and offered “hearty congratulations” in their first conversation since the president-elect’s election win.

The Prime Minister is seeking to secure close ties with Mr Trump amid tensions over Labour activists campaigning for his rival and past comments Cabinet ministers have made about him.

Sir Keir congratulated Mr Trump on his “historic victory” after US voters returned him to the White House, Downing Street said.

“The Prime Minister offered his hearty congratulations and said he looked forward to working closely with President-elect Trump across all areas of the special relationship.”

The leaders agreed that the US-UK relationship, from defence and security to growth and prosperity, was “incredibly strong” and “would continue to thrive for many years to come”, No 10 said.

“The leaders fondly recalled their meeting in September and President-elect Trump’s close connections and affinity to the United Kingdom, and looked forward to working with one another.”

Sir Keir and Foreign Secretary David Lammy had dinner with Mr Trump at Trump Tower in New York several weeks ago.

Since then, the Republican’s campaign filed a legal complaint about Labour activists backing rival Kamala Harris.

There are also fears that relations could be strained due to past comments from senior party figures, including Mr Lammy, who previously described the Republican politician as a “neo-Nazi” sympathiser.

Downing Street on Wednesday stood by Mr Lammy, saying he would remain in post for the rest of the parliamentary term.

No 10 said Sir Keir reflected on the situation in the Middle East and underscored the importance of regional stability in his conversation with Mr Trump on Wednesday, but there was no mention of Ukraine.

The Prime Minister has said the UK’s support for Kyiv will remain “ironclad” amid a lack of clarity on Mr Trump’s plans.

Mr Trump has refused to explicitly say if he wants Ukraine to win the war with Russia, insisting he wants the conflict to end “in a day” but declining to set out the specifics of how this would be achieved.

Mr Trump’s proposals to impose hefty tariffs on goods imported into America which could hit the UK economy and could cause a headache for Sir Keir’s Government, which has just announced a Budget that is banking on growth.

New Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called on Sir Keir to back an invitation for Mr Trump to address Parliament and revive talks on a UK-US trade deal.

Nigel Farage, a longtime supporter of the president-elect, has said that such tariffs could be avoided if Sir Keir carries out direct negotiations with Mr Trump and that he would be “glad to assist” in “bridging the divide that exists between Starmer’s Government and Trump”.

“Britain is really going to have to roll out the red carpet for Trump very quickly. If we don’t, a great opportunity will be squandered,” the Reform UK leader wrote in The Telegraph.