For all his troubles at home could international diplomacy be the making of Sir Keir Starmer? - Jayne Dowle
Who would have wanted to be in Sir Keir Starmer’s super-shiny shoes last Thursday? He was a long way from Kentish Town now.
Imagine how he felt, approaching the White House with the weight of the UK and Europe on his shoulders, wondering just what President Trump was going to do or say.
He brought with him two precious gifts to lay at the feet of the self-styled monarch of the USA; Brexit, which gives the UK an advantage with Trump, who is venging retribution on Europe over tariffs, and a cordial invitation from the King for the President and his wife, Melania, nowhere to be seen, to attend Balmoral to discuss an unprecedented state visit at some time in the presumably near future. I bet Camilla is really looking forward to it all.
In the event, Starmer’s diplomatic mission to the US, the first formal meeting between the two leaders, went better than many had feared. Once his voice settled down from the slightly strangled sound when he first opened his mouth – perhaps that voice coach still has work to do - and he managed to get the rather unnerving blushing under control.
Some achievements were made; he did get Trump to confirm that he backs Article V of the NATO treaty, which binds the US and every other member country to come to the defence of any ally. This was despite the fact that a few weeks ago, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary had prompted panic through Europe by appearing to suggest that America was no longer committed to this arc of mutual support.
“I support it,” said the President. But he added quickly: “I don’t think we’re going to have any reason for it [Article V].”
And there was accord over the contestable matter to relinquish sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, including the joint British-American base on Diego Garcia.
Of course, we only know what we saw, both in the ‘relaxed’ chat Prime Minister and President had before lunch, perched incongruously on Versailles-style chairs, then at the press conference, which ran at least an hour behind schedule, afterwards.
Who knows what was discussed over the swordfish at lunch? But what was encouraging was Starmer’s performance. Perhaps ‘performance’ is the wrong word. Much is being made of Starmer’s strength in these extremely tricky international times lying in the fact that he does not do ‘performative politics’. He simply states his case; faced with the unpredictability of President Trump, this was an advantage.
As Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin said in a piece for a national newspaper, “he will try to make a quiet, reasoned case that giving Putin everything he wants really won’t help ‘Make America Great Again’…Starmer knows there’s little to be gained, and much more to lose, from picking a fight or hectoring Trump for the sake of some easy headlines back home.”
Speaking of home, for all his troubles back in Blighty, could international diplomacy be the making of Starmer? Although Trump towered over him physically, he did seem to grow a few inches in moral stature.
On this showing, Starmer is clearly practising the art of not saying much and allowing the other party to talk; indeed he could barely get a word in edgeways.
What he did manage to say was that any peace deal should ensure the security of Ukraine. And he did also pipe up to correct Trump’s claim that all the aid Britain had given to Kyiv it would get back.
But otherwise, he was very much the straight man to the one-man Trump show. He may need to develop some muscles to deal with the gaslighting blows and learn how to land a few well-aimed punches of his own.
Trump informed the British Prime Minister that Britain did not need American military support, but then said, “If they need help, I will always be with the British.”
Slightly contradictory. Perhaps when Trump saw his companion’s crestfallen face he leaned over, mindful of the world’s cameras: “Come here,” he said to Starmer, and they gripped hands, rather awkwardly.
“This is the greatest alliance the world has ever seen,” Starmer said, slightly apropos of nothing, but obviously determined to make a statement, any statement.
“Could you take Russia by yourself?” Trump asked, too cruelly, I thought.
“Well,” Starmer said. “Er. Ha.”
And so it goes. The dance of diplomacy. Starmer has got over the first hurdle; but we must remember that there will be many more to come as he steers his way through the swamp that threatens to suck down the international relations and careful accords that have kept Europe safe for 80 years.