Analysis: Donald Trump's attacks on Sir Keir Starmer could help beleagured Prime Minister
For the first year of Donald Trump’s term, Sir Keir Starmer appeared to have successfully befriended the unpredictable US President.
He signed a trade deal with Washington, and was showered with praise by Mr Trump on a visit to the UK.
However, the pair always appeared unlikely bed fellows and in recent weeks the relationship has soured. Mr Trump has attacked the UK’s deal over the Chagos Islands and recently got even more personal with Sir Keir.
In a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, he said of the Prime Minister that “he’s no Winston Churchill” over Sir Keir’s refusal to allow strikes on Iran from British airbases.
He also failed to deny he had started referring to the Labour leader as a “loser”.
Now make no mistake, falling out with the President will cause lots of problems for the Prime Minister.
We could see more tariffs, changes to the steel levies and complications around the pharmaceutical charges to the NHS from US firms. These would all be big issues for the stuttering UK economy.
However, politically, it could offer an opportunity. Last September, I was at a conference in London organised by the think tank IPPR.
It saw progressive leaders from all around the world attend - from Australia’s Anthony Albanese to Canada’s Mark Carney - to discuss how to take on the rise of the right-wing parties like Reform UK.
In the UK, Sir Keir is flailing in the polls behind Nigel Farage, however in Australia and Canada centre-left parties overcame huge poll deficits to win elections.
In Canada, Mark Carney’s Liberal Party was 20 points behind the Conservatives, however it came back to regain power.
What was the answer that both Mr Carney and Mr Albanese gave for overturning these deficits - strongly oppose Donald Trump.
In Australia and Canada, the right-wing opposition sought to tie themself to the bombastic US President, with dire electoral consequences. Remember, as much as X [formerly Twitter] tries to tell you otherwise, Mr Trump is unpopular around much of the world, including in the UK.
According to YouGov, in December some 51 per cent of Britons think Mr Trump is a terrible President, while a further 10 per cent think he’s a bad one.
Just 13 per cent think he’s a good President and 7 per cent say he’s great.
So with Sir Keir this week looking to put some clear blue water between himself and Mr Trump, it could be a sign of a shift of tactic from No10.
The Prime Minister was at the IPPR event last year and he heard everything Mr Albanese and Mr Carney said.
You may have also noticed that Mr Farage has started to dial down his claims of a great friendship with Mr Trump.
He too is aware of the electoral consequences of getting too close to the US President.