Britain’s left-wing Prime Minister says he hopes to meet with both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris while he is in the United States this week, but his own ministers struggle to keep on message, laying on the criticism of Trump.
Sir Keir Starmer has flown to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, and hopes to use his time in the United States to get into the good graces of the future U.S. President, whoever that may be. Speaking to reporters on his flight, Starmer said: “As far as the candidates are concerned, if possible, it would be very good to meet both of them at some stage before the election. We’ll just have to see what’s possible”, notes The Daily Telegraph.
But Starmer may have an uphill battle ahead of him to secure these meetings, given as The Guardian asserts, he is “understood not to want to see one candidate without also meeting the other”, meaning a refusal by one could see the British Prime Minister coming home empty-handed. The problem for Starmer may be that even as he continues his months-long charm offensive towards the Trump team — the Labour Party’s natural alignment with the Democrats make such less efforts less important there — his own senior colleagues undermine it.
Speaking at the Labour Party’s annual conference this week, newly-appointed Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum Dame Angela Eagle spoke in the very specific language of the progressive left employed when they feel they are interacting among their own tribe, bemoaning the toxic “othering” of asylum seekers”, and right-wing rhetoric “creating a space, I think, for overt racism”.
It is difficult for newly arrived immigrants to “rise above the constant drumbeat of toxic anti-immigration, anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become emboldened, not only in Britain but across the western countries”.
Getting into her stride, the ‘Border security’ minister made her actual views on the utility of borders clear, remarking: “I mean, Trump does the same… If you look at some of the memes that he’s using with the wall stuff at the moment, it’s astonishing, quite the level of vitriol that it has created.”
The Trump camp made its displeasure known and bit back, with a spokesman reportedly saying of the comments: “Nobody knows who this random person is or cares what comes out of her mouth… Who is she and what does she do?”.
Politico notes Brexit leader and British Trump ally Nigel Farage looked askance at Eagle’s intemperate comments, observing: “Angela Eagle and the Labour Party are so scared of this subject that all they can do is throw abuse at anyone who is concerned at the unwanted changes to our country” while party leader Sir Keir — off on his charm offensive to America — declined to back up his colleague’s comments at all.
It is not the only discipline issue facing Starmer with party colleagues this week, either. One of the new British Prime Minister’s msot discussed policies is stripping the British elderly of a special cash benefit to help them keep their homes heated in the winter, arguing the government could no longer afford to pay it — even as the state continues to hand over colossal sums of cash for other interests. A ballot of his own party members today rejected the measure, undermining his efforts to unite the left-wing broad-church party behind him.
Sir Keir is due to speak at the United Nations on Thursday. His flight to New York this week is Starmer’s second trip to the United States in as many weeks, having already visited Washington D.C. in a bid — apparently failed, for now — to persuade President Joe Biden to authorise strikes deep in the Russian hinterland by Ukraine using Western weapon systems.
