Many UK politicians have strong views on Donald Trump, but have often tempered these in public, conscious of the fact he could become president again. Here is what some senior figures have said about him.
Keir Starmer
Even as opposition leader, Starmer rarely criticised Trump directly, and his most recent mention of him in the Commons was to wish him a quick recovery after the assassination attempt in July.
When pro-Trump protesters attacked the US Capitol in January 2021, Starmer tweeted: “These are not ‘protesters’ – this a direct attack on democracy and legislators carrying out the will of the American people.”
Last month, when Trump’s team complained about Labour volunteers campaigning for the Democrats, Starmer told reporters that having met Trump in New York in September, the pair “established a good relationship”.
David Lammy
In 2018, the then-backbench Labour MP wrote: “Trump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath. He is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of western progress for so long.”
As foreign secretary, Lammy has sought to build bridges, and joined Starmer at the dinner with Trump in New York.
On Wednesday, he tweeted congratulations to Trump, saying: “The UK has no greater friend than the US, with the special relationship being cherished on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 80 years. We look forward to working with you and JD Vance in the years ahead.”
Kemi Badenoch
The new Conservative leader has spoken little of Trump, and unlike Robert Jenrick, her opponent in the party’s recent contest, did not say she would back him if she was American. In 2017, the then-London assembly member, not yet an MP, tweeted that she was “not a Trump fan”, while condemning the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, for “immature grandstanding” over the US president. However, on Wednesday she congratulated Trump on his “historic election victory”.
Badenoch is on the record about being a fan of Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida and scourge of woke causes, having met him as trade secretary.
Nigel Farage
The Reform UK leader is Trump’s No 1 UK fan, and styles himself as a friend of the US president, who has in turn praised Farage as an ideological soulmate for campaigning for Brexit. He was in the US for the election, having also attended the Republican national convention in July.
However, perhaps mindful of Trump’s unpopularity with many UK voters, Farage sometimes caveats his support. In an interview this week, he told the Telegraph that he had “never gone along with the stolen election narrative” and that if Trump lost the current election he should accept this and “go and play golf at Turnberry”.
John Swinney
Speaking to journalists last week, the Scottish first minister said: “People in the United States of America should vote for Kamala Harris and I have not come to that conclusion only because Donald Trump is opposed to Scottish independence.”
Trump’s team called this an “insult to the massive investment in Scotland made by the Trump family”. After the result, Swinney tweeted his congratulations to Trump and pledged to “stand fast in support of our values of fairness, democracy and equality – ideals that America was built upon”.
Emily Thornberry
Speaking in 2019, when she was shadow foreign secretary, the Labour MP argued that Trump should not have been granted a state visit to the UK: “A state visit is an honour, and we don’t think that this president deserves an honour,” she said. “He is a sexual predator, he is a racist, and it’s right to say that.”
Asked by the BBC on Wednesday if she still believed Trump was a “racist sexual predator”, Thornberry, who chairs the foreign affairs select committee, said: “Well, he is. But he is the president of the United States, and we need to work with him.”
Sadiq Khan
The London mayor is probably Trump’s most outspoken critic among senior UK politicians, having clashed repeatedly with the US president. Trump has in turn attacked Khan – something the mayor has linked to subsequent upsurges in racist abuse and threats he faces.
In a statement after the result, Khan said: “I know that many Londoners will be anxious about the outcome of the US presidential election. Many will be fearful about what it will mean for democracy and for women’s rights, or how the result impacts the situation in the Middle East or the fate of Ukraine.”
