Good morning. The election of Donald Trump as the next US president will create profound challenges for Labour, and for many governments around the world, and 24 hours on we are starting to get a better sense of how Labour will respond. Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister and Keir Starmer’s lead political “fixer” in government has just finished a media round where he has been talking about almost nothing else. And the strategy that is emerging? Be nice, and hope for the best.
Keir Starmer has been working hard to establish a good relationship with Trump since he became PM and we saw more of this last night, when he had his first call with the president-elect. No 10 normally issues a readout when the PM has a call with a foreign leader, and normally these are among the most dry, boring and uninformative press releases to come out of Whitehall. But this is what Downing Street released last night.
The prime minister spoke to President-elect Donald Trump this evening to congratulate him on his historic victory.
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.
From defence and security to growth and prosperity, the relationship between the UK and US was incredibly strong and would continue to thrive for many years to come, the leaders agreed.
The prime minister also reflected on the situation in the Middle East and underscored the importance of regional stability.
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.
This might seem bland to people unfamiliar with the way these things are normally worded, but “fondly recalled their meeting in September” is not the sort of language you normally get in these statements. (It also doesn’t sound true; they just had dinner together – it wasn’t a stag night in Las Vagas, or a weekend hiking in the Rockies.) And “hearty congratulations” also sounds a bit excessive. Guardian readers will recall how they felt yesterday when they learned about Trump’s victory, but No 10 released a picture of Starmer speaking to Trump as he was beaming was if he was celebrating an Arsenal victory.
Good to speak with President-elect @realDonaldTrump to congratulate him on his historic victory. I look forward to working together.
From defence and security to growth and prosperity, the relationship between the UK and US is incredibly strong and will continue to thrive for… pic.twitter.com/PXRFfudRIN
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) November 6, 2024
In his interviews this morning McFadden also insisted that the UK’s relationship with the US was strong, and that that would continue with Trump back in the White House. Inevitably he was asked about the long list of derogatory comments made by David Lammy, the foreign secretary, and many other Labour politicians in the past. He did not apologise for them, or even disown then, but he also made it clear that he was not keen to dwell on them either, and he implied that ultimately those comments would not matter much. In an interview with Sky News, asked if he would be able to forgive someone who called him a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” (as Lammy called Trump), McFadden replied:
I think in the end the relationship between the two countries is just much deeper than stuff like that … One thing I know as a cabinet member in the British government is the friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom is really important, it’s benefit beneficial for both countries, and it’s in our national interest to maintain that.
But McFadden also implied there was an element of ‘hope for the best’ in the UK’s approach. Asked about Trump’s plan to impose tariffs of at least 10% on British imports, which economists say could halve UK growth, McFadden replied:
I think you’ve got to understand that in an election, a lot of fiery things are said, and President-elect Trump says a lot of fiery things, and the important thing is what he actually does.
We obviously have interests as a trading nation. We want to protect and look after our interests, and we always want to have a dialogue with the US administration about those.
But for anyone speculating about what exactly will happen, I would advise let’s wait to see what he actually does, rather than take everything said in a campaign.
Labour itself offers a good example of how what a party does in government does not always correlate with what it said it was expecting to do during the election campaign that put it there.
Today parliament is having a short recess, which means there is no Downing Street lobby briefing. Keir Starmer is in Budapest for a meeting of the European Political Community. He is not due to hold a press conference, but we are expecting some broadcast clips from him in the afternoon. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is on a visit to Manchester, and it’s FMQs at Holyrood, but generally the diary looks light.
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Updated at 04.42 EST