The U.K. prime minister — who has been at pains to talk up a good-natured dinner with Trump before the U.S. Republican won in November — sought to put Britain’s ties with America in a historical context. He reeled off past prime ministers who had worked with both the U.S. and Europe in times of upheaval, and pointed to the “shared sacrifice” of two world wars.
“[Clement] Attlee did not choose between allies,” Starmer said. “[Winston] Churchill did not choose. The national interest demands that we work with both.”
Starmer added: “Our relationship with the United States has been the cornerstone of our security and our prosperity for over a century. We will never turn away from that. We call it the special relationship for a reason. It is written not in some dry, dusty treaty, but in the ink of shared sacrifice.”
‘Hard-headed’
Trump’s victory has sent shockwaves through European capitals. The incoming U.S. president has repeatedly called on NATO members to do more to pay for their own defense, while the threat of tariffs looms large.
“This is not about sentimentality, it is about hard-headed realism,” Starmer said of the U.K.’s alliance with the U.S. “Time and again the best hope for the world and the surest way to serve our mutual national interest has come from our two nations working together. It still does.”
At the same time, Starmer’s government is pursuing a post-Brexit reset of relations with the European Union after years of bad blood, including an easing of trade friction with the bloc.
