Sir Keir Starmer delivered a diplomatic success on Thursday as he appeared to charm Donald Trump into co-operation on major issues during his visit to the White House.
Even before formal talks had begun, the prime minister appeared to have secured a number of concessions on issues including trade and Ukraine.
In front of reporters and cameras in the Oval Office, their meeting began with a flourish from Sir Keir as he produced a letter from King Charles inviting him to a second state visit to Britain.
A pre-visit will initially take place at Balmoral, but Trump could also address a joint sitting of parliament at Westminster. As the president accepted the invitation, Sir Keir emphasised he is now the first president to have secured two state visit invitations.
Trump, who dominated news conference, was also flattered when the prime minister thank him “for changing the conversation on Ukraine”.
But there were some awkward moments, including when Trump mocked the prime minister, asking: “Can you take on Russia by yourselves?” – to which Starmer only laughed.
In good news for Sir Keir, Trump endorsed his controversial Chagos Islands deal, giving the territory to Mauritius in what will be a blow to Nigel Farage who has been leading a lobbying effort to overturn it.
He also heard the president warm to the idea of supporting a Ukraine backstop, while emphasising trade tariffs against the EU – but not the UK.
“I think there’s a very good chance that in the case of these two great friendly countries, I think we could very well end up with a real trade deal where the tariffs wouldn’t be necessary,” Trump said.
As the two leaders and their teams, including foreign secretary David Lammy, Labour chief of staff Morgan Sweeney, and vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio, went for lunch and formal talks, the prime minister was well on his way to securing some of the key goals from his visit.
Trump warmly described the leaders’ relationship as “tremendous,” adding: “We get along very famously.”
And he said Britain’s troops “would not need the support of America” if attacked by Russia in Ukraine “because they are very good,” but conceded America “would have Britain’s back”.
And while he did not completely rule out tariffs on Britain, he said the EU “took advantage of the US” and had a very big trade deficit.
On the long-running saga of the Chagos Islands deal, Trump said: “I have a feeling it is going to work out very well, I think we will be inclined to go along with your country.”
He even awkwardly complimented the prime minister’s wife, Lady Victoria Starmer.
Asked about common ground between the two leaders, Trump said: “He loves his country and so do I.” He added: “I’m very impressed with him and very impressed with his wife, she’s a beautiful great woman…”
Trump also appears to have been pleased about Starmer’s boost in defence spending – a policy decision Sir Keir is set to reinforce this weekend when key EU leaders and Zelensky join him for a weekend conference in London.
However, there were some tense moments. One hiccup came when Vance repeated his criticism – raised at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month – that European governments, including Britain’s, had retreated from their values and ignored voter concerns on migration and free speech.
Starmer retorted: “We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom. Britain has a long history of free speech and will have a long history of free speech going forward.”
Trump also said he trusted Vladimir Putin, saying her was confident Russian’s president would “keep his word” in Ukraine talks.
He also laughed a question about why he had called Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator. “Did I say that?” he said, apparently joking. “I don’t believe I said that. Next question.”
There was also uncertainty about the nature of any security backstop for Ukraine against Russia. Trump appeared to suggested the presence of American employees extracting minerals as part of the vaunted commercial deal would provide Kyiv with a guarantee against Putin.
“I don’t think anybody is going to play around if we’re there with a lot of workers,” Trump said.
