An interesting report landed from Newsnight‘s urbane Nick Watt last night (incidentally, he is one of the only remaining reasons to watch the programme). Watt said:
“This is not over. There is absolute horror at the highest levels of the Government as the incendiary language we have seen from Elon Musk. And there’s going to be, as I understand it, a hard headed assessment. Is this just the view of Elon Musk or is it the view of the wider administration and the incoming President Donald Trump? If it’s the latter then there may well be some very serious questions about the nature of our ongoing security partnership with the United States… can you have that level of sharing everything if this sort of stuff is endorsed by the next President of the United States?”
This snarky UK briefing, from a Labour political appointee, tallies with numerous conversations Guido had in the past 24 hours. Multiple US defence and intelligence sources who are either in or close to the Trump camp tell Guido “this is insane, the UK has no idea what it is playing at” with such threats, and claim that they have also been considering the future of the vital partnership in recent weeks because of the “statements of Starmer, Lammy and Mandelson and the deterioration of the relationship”. Guido can disclose that over the past few weeks top Trump appointees have raised Labour’s words on President elect Trump in internal meetings discussing the intelligence and security relationship, as well as Starmer’s ambassadorial appointment. Is Labour risking the UK’s most vital intelligence and security partnership because of their set of whinging lefty talking points?
The UK-US security partnership runs at the deepest possible level, as both states are the key players in Five Eyes, NATO and bilateral channels. That said, the US’s armed forces, nuclear umbrella and signals and human intelligence is unmatched – the UK is a partner, but in many respects a junior one. A senior UK defence source tells Guido “the mood music is very negative” at the political level ahead of the inauguration and that while there have as yet been no changes in the day-to-day relationship, “anything could happen” if the political relationship continues to sour. Will Labour’s band of Trump haters be forced to eat their words on Musk and Trump to maintain the special security relationship?
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”