Most American readers will probably have forgotten Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to the White House by now. The event was eclipsed by the much noisier and more eventful encounter between President Zelenskyy and President Trump the following day.
Here in the UK, however, the occasion was greeted with undisguised pleasure by the political class. Here’s Nicholas Watt on Newsnight, the BBC’s premier late night politics program, that same evening:
“I have to say, the mood in the Downing Street team right now is absolutely ecstatic. Chatting to people who are, in the words of the Hamilton song, ‘In The Room Where It Happened,’ I’m hearing things like ‘game, set and match.’ And away from the cameras Donald Trump was saying nice things to them. Talking about all the preparation, one person said to me, ‘it was like running a general election campaign all over again.’ Chatting also, three big wins they’re talking about. Firstly that this cemented the personal relationship between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump. Talking about how Donald Trump, they believe, made a commitment to NATO and to Article 5, and talking… about how trade talks are starting.”
He also referred to a “Labour back bencher who’s not a Starmtrooper,” saying, “Keir absolutely nailed it. This was his best moment as Prime Minister.”
“Starmtrooper” is an in-joke referring those MPs and acolytes who’ve attached themselves to the PM to further their careers. It’s worth watching Nic Watts’ body language as he delivers this information. It’s obscene the way he writhes in ecstasy as he recounts the scene. He’s like a voyeur, peeping through the keyhole, taking second-hand gratification from someone else’s sexual pleasure.
The high point of the afternoon was when Starmer revealed the letter from King Charles inviting the president to an “unprecedented” second state visit to the UK. Trump’s obviously pleased. He has ostentatious tastes, as images from the penthouse suite in Trump Tower will testify, and there’s no hotel grander than a Palace, no host more elevated than a King. It feeds his vanity to be invited, and Starmer is more than happy to oblige.
It’s worth watching the physical dynamic between the two men. Trump is very relaxed, at ease. This is his place of power, where world leaders come to pay homage. He has nothing to prove, and nothing to hide. He’s winking and joking and putting Starmer in his place by various means. I particularly enjoyed the moment when he joked about the British army. One of journalists asks, “If British troops are in Ukraine keeping the peace, and get attacked by Russia, will you come to their aid?”
“You know, I’ve always felt about the British, they don’t need much help,” he says, avoiding the question.
Starmer intervenes with a point about the transatlantic alliance. “We’ve also always been there backing each other up between our two countries. That is why this is the greatest alliance for prosperity and security I think the world has ever seen. Whenever necessary we’ve absolutely backed each other up…”
“Could you take on Russia by yourselves?” Trump says, cutting through Starmer’s well-rehearsed platitudes with a quip, putting the weaker man in his place. We all know the answer to that.
Starmer is all smiles and handshakes. He’s playing the part of the leader of a subordinate state with practiced obsequiousness and servility. It’s his job to please the Emperor, flatter him, ingratiate himself into Trump’s favor using every trick he can muster. There’s much touching and feeling, reaching over to lay his hand on Trump’s arm more than once. They even appear to hold hands at one point. No wonder his aides talked of a campaign much like the general election. It’s clear that every move, every word, every gesture has been acted out over and over and over again.
Whatever else you can say about Trump, the world has this much to thank him for: he’s ripped away the pretense that the United States is a partner in the Western alliance. It isn’t, and never has been. It’s an Empire, and the Western powers are its vassal states, none more than the United Kingdom, always the first to join it in its wars, always acting as the fig leaf of international support in its overseas adventures. Starmer’s merely continuing the tradition of most post-war British Prime Ministers, of sucking up to the big dog on the world stage, of appeasing the bully.
Starmer also knows when to disagree—not with the Emperor himself (that would be suicide)—but with his subordinates. When JD Vance made a comment about free speech in the United Kingdom, Starmer was quick to intervene.
“We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time...” he said, looking pleased with himself.
The repeated use of the word “very” gives the game away. He’s over-emphasizing, which makes it clear that he’s being “economical with the truth,” to use a well-known phrase.
In fact, there’s very little free speech in the United Kingdom, especially if you want to criticize Israel. There was a question directed to the PM about the BBC airing a film about the plight of children in Gaza. The PM said that he was “concerned about the documentary in question.” The program had already been pulled by the BBC after intense lobbying from the Zionist faction, who revealed that one of the children, the narrator, was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, once Hamas' deputy minister of agriculture. Mere association with Hamas, even if you’re the child of a low-level functionary, is apparently enough to get your right of free speech removed.
Also a number of well-known pro-Palestinian journalists and political commentators have been held in detention under the Terrorism Act in a series of moves condemned by the UN. The right of free speech in the UK has been severely curtailed. As Chomsky once put it: “If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.”
A significant moment arose when Starmer referred to the bust of Winston Churchill, recently returned to the Oval Office by the new president. It had been removed by Obama, reinstated by Trump in his first term, removed again by Biden, and now returned by Trump. If you’re wondering what all this is about—why the bust of a long-dead British Prime Minister matters—perhaps it’s a form of dog-whistle politics. Churchill was a racist and imperialist. Here he is, speaking in 1937 to the Palestine Royal Commission: "I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."
Various commentators have referred to this visit as Starmer’s “Falklands moment.” This is a reference to Margaret Thatcher who, like Starmer, was unpopular until she played the war card and won over the public with her Iron Lady act. Starmer has been possibly the least popular Prime Minister—aside from Liz Truss, who barely counts—since the Second World War, having committed a series of political blunders, alienating Labour’s traditional left-wing base, while still not managing to appeal to the right. Despite this he is in an almost unassailable position, for the next four years at least, with a large majority in the House of Commons. This is due to the vagaries of the First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system, which punishes third-party votes. Starmer didn’t win the last election, the Conservatives lost, their voters either staying away, or voting for the right-wing Reform Party. In fact, his share of the vote went down from his predecessor’s in 2019 and 2017, but he gained a large overall majority. If you’re wondering how an unpopular Prime Minister can remain in office despite widespread opposition, that’s how. It’s also the reason why FPTP will never go away. It serves the establishment too well.
While he was in Washington, Starmer stayed with the British Ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson. American readers will probably have no idea who this person is, but British people know him well. He’s been very prominent in UK politics for the last 30 years or more. The grandson of Herbert Stanley Morrison—a significant figure in the history of the Labour Party—Mandelson was one of the main architects, alongside Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, of the New Labour project. This was the attempt to shift the Labour Party away from its socialist roots towards a more business-friendly approach. It’s a project that has been largely successful. Margaret Thatcher, when asked what her greatest achievement was, said: “Tony Blair and New Labour.”
This is the lineage that Keir Starmer represents. He’s a Blairite through and through. It’s why he chose Peter Mandelson to be his Ambassador. Keep an eye on Mandelson. He’s a master of the dark art of political intrigue. He’s made himself incredibly wealthy by gaming the London property market. He once said that he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich,” and has lived up to that idea. He’ll fit in well with the Trump administration, despite having been rude about the man in the past.
—Follow Chris Stone on X: @ChrisJamesStone