Starmer went straight to a reception at Peter Mandelson’s new residence after he landed at Camp Springs. The PM rattled off some jokes about Mandelson and Milei’s chainsaw…
The PM will show up at the White House at 5:15 p.m. GMT before a bilateral lunch at 5:35 p.m. and a public press conference at 7 p.m. Lammy is also on the ground and is meant to be there for many of the proceedings. There is a minefield of issues that threatens to turn things frosty:
Ukraine: Starmer has nailed his colours to the ‘US backstop’ mast which demands that DC provides extensive security guarantees to Ukraine in a peace settlement. Trump last night said: “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that.” A terrible start there…
Tariffs: Trump is going to announce details of 25% tariffs on the EU “on cars and all other things” imminently. The UK is trying to negotiate an exemption from future tariffs from the administration. Either way, Starmer disagrees with Trump’s tariff policy – the centrepiece of his economic agenda…
Chagos: Starmer has implied that his vaunted defence spending boost will be paying for the Chagos deal. Trump’s team is opposed to the deal while Labour has ploughed through months of bruising media coverage trying to get it through. The President could bring it up…
Apple: Yesterday National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard released a no-holds-barred letter against the Home Office’s move to force Apple to create a backdoor for user data or turn off advanced data protection. Gabbard has instructed US government lawyers to review whether Yvette Cooper’s move is legal under the US/UK CLOUD Act…
Southport: Trump’s close ally Elon Musk has no love lost with Starmer over his handling of the Southport murders and the grooming gangs scandal. Musk accused the PM of “complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain”…
Andrew Tate: The Tate brothers have reportedly departed Romania on a private plane headed for the US. They have a good relationship with Trump and may turn up at the White House. The brothers are currently subject to a European arrest warrant issued by UK police…
Trump and Starmer agree on none of these issues. Mandelson said last night that what Starmer will offer the US President is a “technology compact” between the US and the UK with official collaboration for high-tech firms, research, and R&D. That would be thin gruel. Starmer has been pretty silent on the the real prize – the prospect of a UK-US trade deal…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”