Starmer welcomes Trump’s climbdown on Greenland tariffs, saying ‘British pragmatism’ helped resolve crisis
Keir Starmer has welcomed Donald Trump’s decision to drop his threat to impose tariffs on the UK and some other Nato countries that opposed his plan to buy Greenland, saying “British pragmatism” helped to resolve the crisis.
In his first public remarks since Trump’s climbdown last night, Starmer also said he hoped that the US and its allies would now focus on the “hard yards” of guaranteeing security in the Arctic.
On a visit to Hertfordshire, he said:
I think you will have noticed that the last few days have been incredibly serious in relation to big things happening on the world stage.
And you may have seen but it is a good thing that yesterday the threat of tariffs against the United Kingdom was lifted, and now we can start hard yards and finding a way forward on security in the Arctic, which may seem a long way away, pretty remote, but actually it does matter to all of us in terms of the safety and security of our country.
And we’ve got through the last few days with a mix of British pragmatism, common sense, but also that British sense of sticking to our values and our principles.
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At Davos Donald Trump is now launching his board of peace. Graeme Wearden is covering it on our Davos live blog.
ShareStarmer welcomes Trump’s climbdown on Greenland tariffs, saying ‘British pragmatism’ helped resolve crisis
Keir Starmer has welcomed Donald Trump’s decision to drop his threat to impose tariffs on the UK and some other Nato countries that opposed his plan to buy Greenland, saying “British pragmatism” helped to resolve the crisis.
In his first public remarks since Trump’s climbdown last night, Starmer also said he hoped that the US and its allies would now focus on the “hard yards” of guaranteeing security in the Arctic.
On a visit to Hertfordshire, he said:
I think you will have noticed that the last few days have been incredibly serious in relation to big things happening on the world stage.
And you may have seen but it is a good thing that yesterday the threat of tariffs against the United Kingdom was lifted, and now we can start hard yards and finding a way forward on security in the Arctic, which may seem a long way away, pretty remote, but actually it does matter to all of us in terms of the safety and security of our country.
And we’ve got through the last few days with a mix of British pragmatism, common sense, but also that British sense of sticking to our values and our principles.
ShareCooper suggests Trump’s Greenland climbdown in part related to ‘strength’ of UK’s influence in Washington
Here are more lines from Yvette Cooper’s interviews this morning about Donald Trump and his Greenland U-turn (of sorts).
Cooper, the foreign secretary, suggested that Trump’s shift was in part related to the “strength” of Britain’s influence in Washington. Asked about this climbdown, she told Sky News:
I think it’s a reflection of the strength of our connections in Washington that we’ve obviously had a very significant shift in the president’s position over the last two weeks, the fact that we’ve been doing very determined diplomacy, not just directly the prime minister talking to the president, but also talking at every level.
I’ve spoken to secretary of state [Marco] Rubio, we’ve also spoken to many people across not just the US administration, but also Congress as well, and we have done so with our allies.
In truth, there were probably various explanations for Trump backing down, including, perhaps, that he was never 100% committed to seizing Greenland in the first place. Yesterday the Economist’s Tom Nuttall summed up the main ones.
If we stipulate that we just witnessed a modest climbdown from Trump on Greenland (no mention of tariffs, ruling out force), what should we credit?
– EU resolve on tariffs/ACI/tripwire force?
– market wobbles?
– GOP senators/admin “sensibles” having a quiet word?
I think it’s been us being very clear to US colleagues across the board that we are not going to move on those principles, alongside us putting forward very practical arguments about how damaging all of this has been.
Cooper would not say whether or not she had seen the text of the deal agreed yesterday between Trump and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, about Greenland.
I think this [deal] is about both two things. First of all, some direct discussions between the US and Denmark and Greenland as well – and secondly, about something that I’ve been calling for, that the UK has been calling for, which is a sort of Arctic sentry, which is very similar to the approach that Nato has taken to the Baltic sentry, to the eastern sentry, where countries work together through Nato.
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ShareUK will not be joining Trump’s ‘board of peace’ for now, citing Putin’s invitation, Yvette Cooper says
Good morning. In his Guardian article published on Tuesday, Gordon Brown, the former PM, said:
Years from now the history books will tell us that [Donald] Trump could have declared a quick victory in negotiations over Greenland – accepting the Danish offer of virtually unlimited military bases and access to Greenland’s 25 critical minerals.
Trump probably isn’t a regular Guardian reader, and so it unlikely that he has been taking Brown’s advice, but we don’t need to wait for the history books; last night, in line with the strategy proposed by Brown, Trump backed down from talk of invading or buying Greenland, and instead heralded a more limited “deal” as a negotiating victory.
Here is our story, by Lauren Aratani and Andrew Roth.
This ends a four-day crisis that has preoccupied Westminster. It also wiped out the No 10 news grid, which was supposed to be focused on cost of living announcements this week. On a visit this morning Keir Starmer will try to revive interest in one of those initiatives, the warm homes plan announced yesterday.
But he won’t be able to avoid questions about Trump, because the events of the last few days have made it harder than ever for the UK to go on treating the US as a reliable ally.
This morning Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has been giving interviews. Asked about another tricky dividing line with Trump, she said that the UK would not be one of the initial countries signing up to his “board of peace” – a new body supposed to be taking charge of Gaza reconstruction, but one that Trump seems to view as a potential alternative to the UN.
Asked whether the UK would be joining, Cooper said:
There’s a huge amount of work to do. We won’t be one of the signatories today, because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues, and we do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine.
And to be honest, that is also what we should be talking about.
Trump says Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has joined the board, although Putin himself has not confirmed that.
Aamna Mohdin has more about the board of peace plan in her First Edition briefing.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: John Healey, the defence secretary, is visiting an aerospace site in Edinburgh for an announcement about the Typhoon upgrade.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in Hertfordshire to promote the government’s warm homes plan announced yesterday.
11am: Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, takes part in a Q&A at the Institute for Government.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.
Lunchtime: Starmer hosts Mette Frederiksen, the Danish PM, at Chequers.
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Updated at 04.31 EST