Donald Trump has agreed to stay in touch with Keir Starmer after the UK prime minister steps down from No 10, despite an increasingly tense relationship in recent months. The agreement came during a meeting at the Nato summit in Ankara, where Starmer suggested that maintaining links with the US president would remain part of his continued responsibilities to the strategic UK-US relationship.
Trump thanks UK for defence spending
Despite fears that Trump could destabilise the military alliance with an angry tirade over defence spending, Starmer said the UK had avoided criticism. He told reporters: “Let me just share with you the closing words of President Trump … who thanked everybody there for the spirit of the meeting and the unity of the meeting. So far as funding is concerned, speaking only for the United Kingdom, President Trump thanked us for the contribution we made over many years in material terms.”
Trump shared a chart with Nato leaders showing defence spending in real terms, with the UK in second place over the last decade. However, the UK ranks 12th out of 32 members when spending is measured as a proportion of GDP.
Recent attacks and tensions
Earlier this week, Trump suggested the UK was a “deindustrialised welfare zone” in decline, blaming Starmer’s “weak leadership.” This was the latest in a series of attacks after Starmer refused to become more involved in the US war against Iran. Despite nearing the end of his term, Starmer declined to comment on the latest salvo. “Having resisted so far, I’m not going to be tempted at the last hurdle into starting commenting on what other people may say or not,” he said.
Starmer emphasised the UK’s progress: “We have turned this country around in the last two years, where we’ve got a stronger economy, stronger public services, stronger defence and security … Our international standing two years after I took office is undoubtedly in a much better position than it was when I took over.”
Staying in touch
Despite tensions, Starmer said the pair had “got along really well” over the longer term. He added: “There’s no doubt about that, and we discussed a moment ago, we’ll stay in touch … That is important in terms of the relationship between the UK and the US, because it is a really important strategic relationship for the UK. I saw it as my duty to make sure it’s a relationship that worked.”
Starmer also declined to rule out standing for Nato secretary general in the future, saying he was focusing on his current job. “I’m not thinking about what comes next until I have discharged that duty.”
Warning to Burnham on defence spending
Starmer repeated his warning to prime minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham not to tweak fiscal rules to pay for extra defence spending. “I think the fiscal rules are really important. They are undoubtedly amongst the reasons that we’ve stabilised the economy. The caution I have with extra borrowing is that we are already spending £1 of every £10 that we spend as a government servicing our borrowing, and therefore it is not for me the sensible place to go for extra defence money.”
Senior UK defence officials suggested a Burnham administration might look at doing more within existing fiscal rules to increase military spending. “I know that he’s expressed views on it previously, so I’m sure that they will be thinking about it,” one official said. “In truth that’s definitely going to be a judgment that the next prime minister will have to make.” The official also suggested Burnham might reconsider war bonds, previously rejected by the Treasury as extra borrowing. “We definitely need to look at all of these things, and we’ve got to find the best mechanisms of generating the kind of resource that we are going to need now and in the future.”
Unusual gift from Erdogan
On the plane back to the UK, Starmer told reporters that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave each leader a surprising gift: a revolver engraved with their names and a box of live rounds. However, Starmer had to leave his in Ankara. Even with a note from Erdogan waiving export controls, importing it to the UK was illegal. It remained with the British embassy for decommissioning.
