Progressive politicians must directly confront the \u201clies\u201d used by populists and counter their \u201cindustrialised infrastructure of grievance\u201d, Keir Starmer has said in a speech that included thinly veiled criticism of Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Addressing the Global Progress Action summit in London, where he also spoke publicly for the first time about the plan for mandatory ID cards<\/a>, Starmer took aim at the idea of London as a decaying, dangerous city, one put forward repeatedly by the US president.<\/p>\n But speaking alongside Mark Carney and Anthony Albanese<\/a>, the Canadian and Australian prime ministers, afterwards, Starmer said the world had to accept Trump\u2019s policies, such as tariffs, as a reality.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can have your own view on tariffs \u2026 The fact is, they\u2019re here. President Trump believes in them, uses them, and we have to understand that. It\u2019s a profound belief that he has about the way he wants his economy to be reshaped.\u201d<\/p>\n In his speech, Starmer said recent election wins for himself, Carney, Albanese and others meant he did not accept that progressive, centre-left politics was \u201cdying out\u201d. He added: \u201cBut I do accept that it is now time for social democrats to confront directly some of the challenges and some of the lies, frankly, that have taken root in our societies.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause we don\u2019t just hear these stories about our politics, we also hear stories about our great countries, our communities, our cities, that simply do not match the reality that we see around us.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing the multinational crowd, Starmer joked that those who had been looking around London<\/a> in the run-up to the summit \u201cmay have noticed that this city isn\u2019t the wasteland of anarchy that some would have you believe\u201d.<\/p>\n