Trump and Sir Keir’s relationship has been often warm but frequently rocky as their times as world leaders have overlapped.
When the Holborn and St Pancras MP was leader of the opposition, Starmer said he would have “to make it work” if both he and Trump were both given the highest office in their respective countries.
Efforts were made, and the two held their first dinner together in New York in September 2024 alongside then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy. Lammy had previously branded the ex-President a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.
The first signs of some friction would soon emerge. Amid a row over British volunteers travelling to campaign for the Democrats in battleground states. Donald Trump’s campaign team complained to the Federal Election Commission, accusing the UK Labour Party of “blatant foreign interference” in the US election.
Starmer dismissed the complaint saying it was a regular occurrence for party staff to volunteer in the US election.
But upon Trump’s inauguration, the British Government made efforts to interact warmly with the Trump administration. Trump said the pair get along well, and that Sir Keir had done a “very good job thus far”.
Around this time, the Government began to line up Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, viewed as a trusted pair of hands amid fears Trump would impose tariffs on the UK.