Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to build a relationship with Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump ahead of the meeting in lavish Trump Tower in New York
Keir Starmer will sit down with Donald Trump tonight for their first face-to-face meeting.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to build a relationship with the Republican presidential hopeful ahead of the meeting in lavish Trump Tower.
Aides have been scrambling to set up talks with both Mr Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris before the US election in November. The PM hasn’t met either politician before, but he spoke to Mr Trump after the assassination attempt against him in July.
Mr Trump said he thought the PM was “very nice” and he was “very popular” in the UK. At a rambling press conference at Trump Tower before the meeting, he said: “I actually think he’s very nice. He ran a great race, he did very well, it’s very early he’s very popular.”
He also praised Nigel Farage, saying: “I think Nigel is great, I’ve known him for a long time. He had a great election too, picked up a lot of seats, more seats than he was allowed to have actually.
“They acknowledged that he won but for some reason you have a strange system over there, you might win them but you don’t get them. Nigel is a fantastic person.”
Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Mr Starmer said he wanted to build a relationship with Mr Trump. He said: “I’ve said a number of times, 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.”
He added: “It’ll be really to establish a relationship between the two of us. I’m a great believer in personal relations on the international stage.
“I think it really matters that you know who your counterpart is in any given country, and know them you know personally, get to know them face to face.”
Mr Starmer declined to say what they would discuss but he is likely to press Mr Trump on the US’s continued support for Ukraine against Russia.
Asked whether he’d be able to stand up to Mr Trump, the PM said: “The first thing I think is important to say in relation to this is we’ve obviously had a special relationship with the US for a long time, forged in really difficult circumstances. That always sits above whoever holds the particular office, either in the US or the UK.
“And it is really important. I think it’s probably as strong now as it’s ever been, in relation to the Middle East and Ukraine. And you’ve seen how closely I’ve been working with the US in relation to both of those issues.
“The US people will decide who they want as their president, and we will work with whoever is President, as you would expect. I’m not going to speculate on what any particular issues may be the other side of the election.”
