Unlock the US Election Countdown newsletter for free
The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will meet Donald Trump, but not vice-president Kamala Harris, during his trip to the US.
The UK prime minister is due to meet the Republican presidential candidate at Trump Tower on Thursday evening.
Starmer travelled to New York this week to attend the UN General Assembly, and has also scheduled meetings with senior executives such as Larry Fink of Blackstone and Brad Smith of Microsoft.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Thursday, the prime minister confirmed his meeting with former President Trump and stressed his wish also to meet the Democratic presidential candidate Harris.
“I want to meet both candidates. We’ve now got the opportunity to meet Trump, which is good. Obviously, I still want to speak to Harris as well but, you know, the usual diary challenges [have occurred],” he said.
Starmer said his talks with Trump were about trying to “establish a relationship between the two of us”.
He added: “I’m a great believer in personal relations on the international stage.”
Attitudes towards Trump in the Labour party have often been deeply hostile.
A dozen members of Starmer’s cabinet have criticised Trump in the past, describing him as a “sociopath”, an “absolute moron” and “a racist, misogynistic, self-confessed groper”.
Starmer said it was up to the US electorate to decide who their next leader will be and insisted “we will work with whoever is president”.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump told a press conference that he thought Starmer was “very nice”, adding of the UK leader’s recent election campaign and early administration: “He ran a great race, he did very well, it’s very early, he’s very popular.”
Asked whether Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader with whom he has a friendship, should play a bigger role in British politics, Trump said: “I think Nigel is great, I’ve known him for a long time. He had a great election too.”
Trump claimed that Farage’s party “picked up a lot of seats, more seats than he was allowed to have actually”, arguing the UK’s “strange system” distorted the election result.
He appeared to be referring to the fact that Reform UK only won five MPs — less than 1 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons — but 14 per cent of the popular vote.
The meeting is set to take place after Starmer made his first address to the UN general assembly, in which he said that under his leadership, the UK would move “from the paternalism of the past towards partnership for the future”.
He said this would involve Britain “listening a lot more — speaking a bit less”, while still continuing to offer “game-changing British expertise and working together in a spirit of equal respect”.
Starmer also reiterated UK calls for reform of the UN Security Council, insisting that Brazil, India, Japan and Germany should become permanent members, with further seats for elected members and permanent representation from Africa.
Calling for reform of the international financial system to better support developing nations, he also announced the creation of a new facility within British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution.
He said it would “work with the City of London to mobilise billions in pension and insurance funds to invest in boosting development and fighting climate change”.
