Good morning. As the Labour government tries to work out what having Donald Trump back in the White House will mean for Britain, and what it must do in response, David Lammy is absolutely at the centre of that debate. Partly that is because he is foreign secretary, and partly it’s because (in a crowded field) he is probably the British MP who has been most outspoken and critical about Trump in the past.
Lammy has now given a long interview to the BBC’s Newscast podcast to discuss these issues. And, as Jamie Grierson reports, he dismissed suggestions that his past diatribes about Trump would damage the relationship now by describing his comments as “old news”.
But Lammy also pushed back against suggestions that Trump’s election would be wholly negative and he said it could also present “opportunities” for Britain.
Asked if he accepted that Trump’s election had made life “harder” for the UK government, Lammy said they would certainly be “different”. But, when it was put to him that he was just being diplomatic, Lammy did not accept that. He said he wanted to make two points.
The first thing is to say that, on the whole, foreign policy is less partisan than domestic policy. And that is the case in the American system as much as it is in our system.
The second thing to say is, yes, there will be differences and there will be areas where we disagree actually, I suspect.
But there are also opportunities and we shouldn’t underestimate the opportunities that there will be as well. And we must seize those.
Lammy said he thought Trump was right to argue that Europe needed to spend more on defence. Asked about claims that the British economy would be harmed by the tariffs that Trump plans to impose, Lammy suggested that would be counter-productive for the US, and he suggested that the UK might be able to get exemptions. He also said that in foreign policy there would be areas where the UK and a Trump administration had common interests.
In a world where there’s war in Europe, where there’s a tremendous loss of life in the Middle East, where the US and the UK genuinely have a special relationship, where we got someone who’s about to become again the US president who has experience of doing the job last time around, we will forge common interests. We will agree and align on much and, where we disagree, we’ll have those conversations as well, most often in private.
I will post more from the interview soon.
Otherwise, it looks like a relatively quiet day. Parliament is in recess. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is due to be talking about Ukraine during a visit later. And the Reform UK Welsh conference is taking place in Newport, where Nigel Farage is due to speak at 5pm.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. I’m still using X and I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I’m also trying Bluesky (@andrewsparrowgdn) and Threads (@andrewsparrowtheguardian).
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
#seize #opportunities #Trump #presidency #David #Lammy #politics #live #Politics
Hindi 
English
Leave a Reply