Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O’Flynn

Was Starmer’s love-in with Trump really such a triumph?

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump in the White House (Getty images)

Opponents of Keir Starmer would be well advised to concentrate on his many real weaknesses rather than inventing non-existent disasters just to bolster their own prejudices.

The British radical online Right spent the last 48 hours not only hoping for the UK Prime Minister to be humiliated by Donald Trump, but then pretending he had been even when he clearly hadn’t. The reality is that Starmer’s visit to Washington DC was very successful, at least in the short-term. 

As well as establishing an unlikely public rapport with Trump, the Prime Minister advanced a promising dialogue on tariffs and trade and got the President to endorse his Chagos Islands deal. British Trump-worshippers are at this very moment still trying to devise fresh arguments as to why this development – the very opposite to what they predicted – shows that their hero has still dumped on Starmer. What it actually shows is that Trump thinks the outline agreement is compatible with American security needs and doesn’t really care that it is an anti-patriotic embarrassment for Britain.

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