Keir Starmer touts relationship with Donald Trump as he seeks US-UK trade deal

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he could strike a trade deal with Donald Trump and avoid punitive tariffs on the UK as he dismissed Elon Musk’s harsh criticism of his leadership as “noise-making”.

StarmerSpeaking to the Financial Times on a visit to Kiev, insisted that Trump’s inauguration on Monday would not add to his political anxieties, saying he had a “constructive” relationship that would survive with the incoming president’s ally, Musk, the world’s richest man.

“What’s important to me is my relationship with the United States and my relationship with President-elect Trump,” Starmer said, brushing aside recent revelations by the FT that Musk was exploring ways to remove him from Downing Street.

“Ultimately my experience is that you have to focus on something,” he said, referring to Musk’s suggestion that he is the leader of a “tyrannical” government. “Ignore the words.”

Trump asked Musk to help his new administration cut US bureaucracy. Starmer also said he would be “brutal about cuts” if required to comply with Labor’s fiscal rules after the UK’s borrowing costs rose in recent months.

Starmer has set great store on what she believes to be a strong primary relationship with Trump, despite the president-elect’s close relationship with his internal rival Nigel Farage and the Trump campaign accusing him of meddling in his Labor Party in October. US election.

Starmer repeatedly returned to the president-elect for dinner at Trump Tower in New York last September.

“He made a huge effort,” Starmer said, sitting in a puffa jacket in Kiev’s traditional Kanapa restaurant, a fire burning in the corner. “He came to New York to have dinner with me and I’m very grateful for that.”

The relationship is now set to be tested, especially if Trump follows through on his threats to impose new global tariffs.

“Tariffs are in nobody’s interest,” Starmer said as plates of dumplings and mushrooms began to arrive. “Our ambition is to have some kind of agreement with the United States, a trade agreement. That’s where our focus is.”

A UK-US trade deal has been the dream of successive British prime ministers since Brexit, but has never materialised. Starmer rejected the “false choice” that she had to choose between a deal with Trump or a better trade deal with the EU.

During Starmer’s visit to Kiev on Thursday – days before Trump’s inauguration – there was a symbolic show of the UK’s continued support for Volodymyr Zelensky: the two men signed a “100-year partnership” between the two countries.

But it was also an opportunity for Starmer to signal to Trump that Britain was prepared to join France and other European allies in stepping up to the plate – possibly leaving peacekeepers on the ground – if Ukraine agreed to end the war with Russia.

Trump told Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron last month that he hoped the Europeans would secure peace, but Starmer said he was confident the new US president would help put Ukraine in “the strongest possible position” ahead of any peace talks.

“He is very aware of the contribution that the United States has made here,” said Starmer, whose visit to Kiev was accompanied by Russian drone activity over the city. “It’s very important to both of us. I think he fully understands the important role the United States will play in this regard.”

Zelensky on Thursday listed the United States as one of the countries opposed to Ukraine’s NATO membership – along with Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. Starmer said he would “appeal” to those countries to keep the door open.

Meanwhile, Starmer had to shelve a deal to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands – the US/UK Diego Garcia military base – from the UK to Mauritius amid fears by some in the Trump team that it could cede influence to China. .

“I think it’s right that he vetted it,” Starmer said, after bowing to a request from Prime Minister Trump to study the deal before signing it. But he insisted the deal would secure the base’s long-term legal future.

Will Trump be happy to see Starmer’s continued engagement with Beijing, including efforts to build more UK-China trade? “Let’s see,” he said. “The United States is our closest ally. It’s usually better not to get ahead of yourself.”

Starmer has enough economic problems without Trump making them worse, as Britain grapples with the threat of “stagflation”, above inflation. Bank of England2 percent target with near-zero growth. Trade and markets have become increasingly gloomy.

But the prime minister insisted her long-term economic strategy was working and her critics should stop getting hung up on daily economic data, rejecting suggestions that Rachel Reeves’ future as chancellor somehow depended on whether inflation was 2.5 per cent last month. or 2.6 percent.

“I’ve always said it will take time,” Starmer said, adding that investment in Britain was strong. “I don’t think overreacting to every single decimal point on a daily basis is necessarily reflective. We know it’s going to be a long journey.”

The UK 10-year gilt yield hit a post-financial crisis high of 4.93 percent last week, but has fallen to 4.65 percent since Friday. Gilts rallied as weaker than expected inflation, growth and sales data prompted investors to increase their bets on an interest rate cut from the BoE.

Starmer claimed that if borrowing costs exceeded expectations and put a hole in Reeves’ financial plans, he would not hesitate to act, even if it risked a major clash with Labor MPs and many of his own ministers.

“We will be ruthless with cuts if necessary,” he said. “Ultimately financial regulations and our commitment to them are iron-clad.” Starmer insisted that last year’s budget, with its £40bn tax hike, laid the foundations for growth.

“It’s about stipulation, it’s about stability, it’s about certainty,” he said. “It’s about not cutting and changing — it’s about sticking to the decisions that were made, even though they were difficult and even though they were.”

Starmer’s approval rating has fallen since the general election and Labor is now just one point ahead of Farage’s Reform UK party, according to a YouGov poll. The nerves on the Labor benches are frayed.

“I like fights,” Starmer said, thinking about the long train ride from Kiev. “I have had to fight for the leadership of the Labor Party, fight to win the election. Five years ago people said, ‘He can’t do it’, but I said, ‘Watch this space’.

Additional reporting by Ian Smith in London