This Anglo-American Odd Couple Can Carry On

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Times must be really tough when a Labour prime minister finds the company of the world’s most famous right-wing populist more congenial than that of his own MPs. Donald Trump’s second state visit to Britain provided welcome relief for Keir Starmer from his troubles. After the royal flummery and banqueting glitz, the PM’s powers of diplomacy were shown to their best advantage during the more practical encounters on the final day at Chequers. 

At home, the PM’s position, however, has never been weaker. A domino effect — from the  resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to the sacking of his Washington ambassador, Peter Mandelson over his support for the convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein — has brought to a head a crisis of confidence. Speculation is rife that one more scandal, one more badly received budget or electoral setback could trigger a leadership challenge. The front-runner for a possible tilt at the top job is Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, one of very few Labour figures to have a positive rating in the opinion polls. 

Given that Starmer is struggling to keep the lid on internal dissatisfaction, it’s worth asking why Trump ends up buddying up with a former liberal human-rights lawyer like Starmer, who is not exactly a star on the world stager. After all, the PM doesn’t even play golf, and right now he looks like “a loser”  — the least favorite word in the presidential lexicon.

By his outspoken standards though, his barbs about Starmer’s government at their joint press conference were very mild. “Call out the military” to stop boatloads of illegal migrants crossing from France, Trump advised. Investment in wind power is apparently just  “an expensive joke.” These throwaway lines were  made for hostile newspaper headlines, but a post-match analysis would say they were swamped by the praise lavished on the UK and the royal family. Deals on technological cooperation and investment in artificial-intelligence projects tied to the US  worth £150 billion ($202 billion) gave substance to the rhetoric. 

The visit therefore has been counted as a success. Real differences do remain, however and the tension over Israel and its all-out assault to wipe out Hamas in Gaza is at the forefront of subjects on which the agree-to-disagree stance will shortly come under strain.

No 10’s plan to recognize Palestinian statehood is certainly regarded by the White House as unhelpful gesture politics. But the intended audience for the gesture lies elsewhere - Labour’s own activists and MPs, who think the government has tilted too far towards Israel and failed to grasp the magnitude of the suffering inflicted on civilians. If Starmer reckons that Palestinian recognition will silence the critics, he may well be disappointed. 

At Windsor, Trump, who previously caused a mixture of outrage and bemusement with his proposal to turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East,” merely shrugged at Starmer’s plans and moved on. Perhaps there is calculation as well as sentiment in the president's forbearance of his unlikely ally. “Project 2025,” the ideological manifesto for his second term, states that one important US foreign policy goal is not to let post-Brexit Britain “slip back into the orbit of the EU,” which ranks prominently on Trump’s list of global foes.

If Trump sees himself as a kindly shepherd bringing the lost British sheep back to the fold, his dogs are more inclined to bare their teeth. Vice President JD Vance routinely decries British backsliding on free speech (naturally overlooking the White House’s attempt to muzzle American media). Britain’s Online Safety Act, designed to protect children from harmful social media, also draws the ire of Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

And although the Boss makes nice, some members of Team Trump clearly prefer a right-wing alternative to Starmer’s government. While holidaying in the Cotswold Hills northwest of London, Vance received a stream of visitors from the populist Reform UK party led by the President’s friend Nigel Farage as well as right-wing Conservatives. On Tuesday, Chris Ruddy, the Trump-friendly CEO of Newsmax, hosted a dinner of senior figures from the administration, Reform and the Conservatives in an attempt “to unite the British right” (good luck with that one).  It went comically wrong when a discussion about the Tory record in office descended into a shouting match between former leaders.

Musk, no longer on speaking terms with Trump,  goes even further in his opposition to Labour. Silicon’s Valley’s most volatile tech-titan told a huge rally in London organized by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson that “whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die, that’s the truth, I think.”

Barring an unlikely revolution, the odd couple of Trump and Starmer in the meantime will remain allies - of a kind. Sentiment and the UK’s pivot between the US, the EU and China, means that the administration won't write off Starmer yet.

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This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Martin Ivens is the editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Previously, he was editor of the Sunday Times of London and its chief political commentator.

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