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This is what Donald Trump’s victory could mean for the UK | US News

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This is what Donald Trump’s victory could mean for the UK | US News

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This is what Donald Trump’s victory could mean for the UK | US News


Keir Starmer says he has a good relationship with Donald Trump (Pictures: Metro.co.uk)

While Keir Starmer’s government was officially neutral on the US presidential election, there’s no denying a Kamala Harris victory would have been less awkward for them.

Over the past few months, disparaging comments about Donald Trump made by ministers while they were still in opposition have resurfaced.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting once branded the president-elect an ‘odious, sad little man’, while Foreign Secretary David Lammy went even further, describing him as a ‘woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath’.

Labour figures will spend the next few days facing questions about those sentiments and whether they still hold them. But beyond that, what could Trump’s win mean for the country?

Much of that depends on Sir Keir’s personal relationship with the Republican. The PM insists it’s healthy, pointing to a genial dinner the pair shared at Trump Tower in September.

According to a story in the Sunday Times last weekend, the then-presidential candidate looked at Starmer at the end of their meal and said: ‘You and I are friends.’

Lammy reportedly performed even better at the meal – the Foreign Secretary studied at Harvard University and feels at home among American politicians.

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But that all came before the Trump campaign filed a legal complaint against the Labour Party and the rival Harris campaign last month, accusing them of ‘blatant foreign interference’ in the election.

It stemmed from a row over Labour staff travelling to the US to support the Democrats, though this has been a common practice for many years.

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While the complaint was dismissed as a ‘political stunt’ by some, it indicated that things might not be all that rosy between Trump’s team and the UK’s party of government.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has reportedly forged a good relationship with the president-to-be (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The more dramatic impact from a Trump presidency, however, may come from some of the 78-year-old’s broader policies.

That includes his plans to impose tariffs on all imports – meaning a tax placed on all products brought into the US from abroad to be sold there.

This plan would dramatically affect the world economy as other countries retaliate with their own measures and supply chains are reorganised.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has indicated the government is preparing for the implications of such measures. The most recent annual figures show UK exports to the US were £188.2 billion.

There are also questions around Trump’s plans for handling Russia’s war in Ukraine.

He has previously said he could end the conflict in one day – but that would likely mean reaching a deal that was much more favourable to Moscow than Kyiv.

Nato’s future also has a large question mark, as Trump has threatened to pull out of the military alliance in the past. A more isolated US could force the UK to play a more prominent role in European security.

But as we know from the first four years of Trump, if there’s one thing we can predict about his presidency – it’s unpredictability.

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The UK, like the rest of the world, will need to settle in for four more years of never being quite sure what’s coming next.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.


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