Many UK politicians have sturdy views on Donald Trump, however have typically tempered these in public, aware of the very fact he may change into president once more. Here’s what some senior figures have mentioned about him.
Keir Starmer
Whilst opposition chief, Starmer not often criticised Trump straight, and his most up-to-date point out of him within the Commons was to want him a fast restoration after the assassination try in July.
When pro-Trump protesters attacked the US Capitol in January 2021, Starmer tweeted: “These aren’t ‘protesters’ – this a direct assault on democracy and legislators finishing up the desire of the American individuals.”
Final month, when Trump’s group complained about Labour volunteers campaigning for the Democrats, Starmer advised reporters that having met Trump in New York in September, the pair “established a superb relationship”.
David Lammy
In 2018, the then-backbench Labour MP wrote: “Trump shouldn’t be solely a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath. He’s additionally a profound menace to the worldwide order that has been the muse of western progress for therefore lengthy.”
Now he’s international secretary, Lammy has sought to construct bridges, and joined Starmer on the dinner with Trump in New York.
On Wednesday he tweeted congratulations to Trump, saying: “The UK has no higher good friend than the US, with the particular relationship being cherished on each side of the Atlantic for greater than 80 years. We stay up for working with you and JD Vance within the years forward.”
Kemi Badenoch
The brand new Conservative chief has spoken little of Trump, and in contrast to Robert Jenrick, her opponent within the get together’s current contest, didn’t say she would again him if she was American. In 2017, the then-London meeting member, not but an MP, tweeted that she was “not a Trump fan”, whereas condemning town’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, for “immature grandstanding” over the US president. Nonetheless, on Wednesday she congratulated Trump on his “historic election victory”
Badenoch is on the report about being a fan of Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida and scourge of woke causes, having met him as commerce secretary.
Nigel Farage
The Reform UK chief is Trump’s No 1 UK fan, and types himself as a good friend of the US president, who has in flip praised Farage as an ideological soulmate for campaigning for Brexit. He was within the US for the election, having additionally attended the Republican nationwide conference in July.
Nonetheless, maybe aware of Trump’s unpopularity with many UK voters, Farage generally caveats his assist. In an interview this week, he advised the Telegraph that he had “by no means gone together with the stolen election narrative” and that if Trump misplaced the present election he ought to settle for this and “go and play golf at Turnberry”.
John Swinney
Talking to journalists final week, the Scottish first minister mentioned: “Folks in america of America ought to vote for Kamala Harris and I’ve not come to that conclusion solely as a result of Donald Trump is against Scottish independence.”
Trump’s group referred to as this an “insult to the huge funding in Scotland made by the Trump household”. After the consequence, Swinney tweeted his congratulations to Trump and pledged to “stand quick in assist of our values of equity, democracy and equality – beliefs that America was constructed upon”.
Emily Thornberry
Talking in 2019, when she was shadow international secretary, the Labour MP argued that Trump shouldn’t have been granted a state go to to the UK: “A state go to is an honour, and we don’t suppose that this president deserves an honour,” she mentioned. “He’s a sexual predator, he’s a racist, and it’s proper to say that.
Requested by the BBC on Wednesday if she nonetheless believed Trump was a “racist sexual predator”, Thornberry, who now chairs the international affairs choose committee, mentioned: “Effectively, he’s. However he’s the president of america, and we have to work with him.”
Sadiq Khan
The London mayor might be Trump’s most outspoken critic amongst senior UK politicians, having clashed with the US president repeatedly. Trump has in flip attacked Khan – one thing the mayor has linked to subsequent upsurges in racist abuse and threats he faces.
In an announcement after the consequence, Khan mentioned: “I do know that many Londoners can be anxious in regards to the end result of the US presidential election. Many can be fearful about what it is going to imply for democracy and for girls’s rights, or how the consequence impacts the state of affairs within the Center East or the destiny of Ukraine.”
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