Keir Starmer has spoken of how he personally “likes and respects” the US president, Donald Trump, and understands what he is trying to achieve.
The prime minister made the comments in an interview with the New York Times, saying: “President Trump has a point when he says there needs to be a greater burden borne by European countries for the collective self-defence of Europe.”
He said it was a critical moment for the UK and it would not be right to pick either Europe or the US to side with. “Churchill didn’t do it. Attlee didn’t do it. It’d be a big mistake, in my view, to choose now,” he said.
At the same time, Trump’s special envoy said this weekend that Starmer’s plan for a “coalition of the willing” to support a ceasefire in Ukraine was just a “posture and a pose”, and dismissed the idea of him being like Winston Churchill.
Steve Witkoff said the idea was based on a “simplistic” notion of the UK prime minister and other European leaders thinking: “We have all got to be like Winston Churchill.” Witkoff also praised Vladimir Putin, saying he “liked” the Russian president and did not “regard Putin as a bad guy”.
No 10 had no comment on Witkoff’s remarks. But the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that she was “not put off by that”.
“We will need to make sure that if there is a ceasefire it can be enforced, and that’s what our prime minister, along with allies around the world, is trying to secure, and of course the US has got to be an important part of that,” she said. “But it is right that European countries, including the UK, [are] upping defence expenditure because in this uncertain world, our national security, our domestic security, is incredibly important for so many things, including a strong economy.”
Starmer’s interview with the New York Times was prominently featured on the outlet’s website in the US.
In the interview, the prime minister said this critical moment for Europe and Ukraine had always been inevitable. “In our heart of hearts, we’ve known this moment was coming from just over three years ago, when Russian tanks rolled across the border,” he said. “We have to treat this as a galvanising moment and seize the initiative.”
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The prime minister told the newspaper about his rapport with Trump, saying: “On a person-to-person basis, I think we have a good relationship.” He added: “I like and respect him. I understand what he’s trying to achieve.”
In relation to some of Trump’s actions, including a 25% tariff on British steel and his criticism of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Starmer said he recognised that the president had generated “quite a degree of disorientation” but the right reaction was not to be provoked by it. He also dismissed the need for “flowery” language around incidents such as Trump and his vice-president JD Vance’s row with Zelenskyy in the White House.
“On the day in which the Oval Office meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy didn’t go particularly well, we were under pressure to come out very critically with, you know, flowery adjectives to describe how others felt,” Starmer said. “I took the view that it was better to pick up the phone and talk to both sides to try and get them back on the same page.”
