UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had a two-hour dinner with Donald Trump at the fascist Republican presidential candidate’s New York residence, Trump Tower.
Accompanied by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Starmer had just spoken at the United Nations General Assembly where he continued proselytising for stepped-up war with Russia, including by allowing Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles on Russian targets.
There he took pains to hint at his disagreements with Trump, who has said he wants to bring an end to the Ukraine war with a negotiated settlement, opposes further subventions to the Zelensky regime and will not allow US troops to fight there—an position based on a toxic mixture of American isolationism and a belief that the main rival of US imperialism is China and not Russia.
“People talk about an age of polarization, impunity, instability and an unravelling of the UN charter,” said Starmer. “And I feel a sense of fatalism has taken hold. But our task is to say no … This is the moment to reassert fundamental principles and our willingness to defend them. To recommit the UN to internationalism, to the rule of law.”
On Wednesday, Starmer had attacked Russia at the UN Security Council, accusing Moscow of violating the UN charter, and saying it should not be at the meeting despite being a permanent member.
Moreover, while he was at Trump Tower, Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden were at the White House meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was seeking US permission to use Storm Shadow missiles.
But even such fundamental considerations of imperialist foreign policy did not cause Starmer to balk at accepting Trump’s invitation. With the possibility of Trump winning the presidency in November very real, Starmer was intent on making clear to Britain’s ruling elite that Labour would do whatever it takes to defend the specific interests on British imperialism under all conditions.
In the spirit of Lord Palmerston’s declaration, “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual,” Starmer told the press that “we’ve obviously had a special relationship with the US for a long time, forged in really difficult circumstances. That always sits above whoever holds the particular office, either in the US or the UK… The US people will decide who they want as their president, and we will work with whoever is president, as you would expect.”
Proving this ability to work with Trump is important for Starmer, after years in opposition when Labour could reinforce its pro-NATO, anti-Brexit and tattered “progressive” credentials by attacking Trump—including Lammy calling him a “dangerous clown”, “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathizer” and a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath”.
Even this week at the Labour Party conference Border Security Minister Angela Eagle, tasked with implementing the government’s vicious clampdown on migrants, denounced Trump for emboldening the far right in the US, Britain and internationally with his “toxic anti-immigration, anti-immigrant rhetoric.”
On Eagle’s part this is the most degraded hypocrisy, but it is true—with Trump telling the press the day he met with Starmer that the US faced a “mass invasion” and “sudden, suffocating inundation” by millions of illegal immigrants thanks to Harris.
However, for Starmer, who once said that Trump’s endorsement by Boris Johnson “tells you everything you need to know” about “why he isn’t fit to be Prime Minister” that was then and this is now. While Lammy was at the meeting after he said of Trump’s vice-presidential running mate J.D. Vance, “We share a similar working-class background… And we’re both Christians, so I think I can find common ground with J.D. Vance.” With Trump also.
Trump was not one to miss the political opportunity of embarrassing the Democrats and Harris, telling the press, “I actually think [Starmer] is very nice. He ran a great [election] race he did very well. It’s very early but he is popular.”
That he most certainly is not. However, Starmer is not seeking popularity but to prove he can work with anyone—including fascists such as Trump and Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, who he has already embraced—whenever this is called for. And that Labour, as he never tires of stating, is no longer “the party of protest” but one that puts “the nation” first.
Starmer’s every action confirms the reality behind such soundbites. Labour is a right-wing, pro-austerity, xenophobic, anti-migrant party, as well as a defender of genocide and advocate for a war on Russia which is at the very centre of his present alliance with Biden and Harris. It confronts the working class as not only a vicious opponent but as a mortal threat.