Will Trump listen to Starmer?

Here is a sign of how weak Keir Starmer’s relationship is with the new leader of the free world. Nigel Farage has repeatedly offered to act as a bridge between the UK Labour government and the incoming Donald Trump administration. And for the second time, Farage is celebrating a Trump presidential election victory with the man himself, while the entire British political establishment is out in the cold.

Last time round the relationship’s low point occurred when a disobliging assessment of Trump by the then UK Ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, was leaked. Thereafter Trump refused to deal with him and Darroch ended up resigning. This time, things are far worse. Trump was personally aggrieved by reports of the Labour party sending out scores of current and former staff to campaign for Kamala Harris, branding it foreign election interference.

Darroch’s language about Trump, too – ‘inept and insecure’ – pales into insignificance when compared to stuff that leading lights in the Labour party have said about him.