Shunning Trump is bad news for Labour, but even worse for Britain

The front pages of Britain's national newspapers following the re-election of Donald Trump
The front pages of Britain's national newspapers following the re-election of Donald Trump

I was recently invited to dinner in New York at an achingly cool bar set halfway up a skyscraper. As Manhattan – an endless constellation of blinking lights – twinkled peacefully through the pitch black sweep of panoramic plate glass, I introduced myself as an Englishman. A British parliamentarian, in fact.

“So just how bad is it over there, what the hell is going on?”, asked my alarmed interlocutor – a preppy young professional who had recently cancelled a trip to London. The usual badinage about burning down the White House – or harmless anecdotes about the monarchy – wasn’t going to cut it, so I instead pitched in hard for the greatness of today’s UK – as one always must abroad. My American friend cradled his glass and furrowed his brow: “But what about the economy, this tax on carried interest means all my colleagues are leaving Britain?” My heart sank – news of the Chancellor’s recent Budget had clearly made it across the pond. I found Labour’s mindless attacks on transatlantic enterprise impossible to defend.

I felt the same when I had the chance to spend a few glorious weeks in the American south earlier this year. I spoke to dozens of Americans – many of whom had an extremely well-formed view of the UK. Rightly or wrongly, their perception was that high levels of illegal immigration are fuelling social division and crime. Some of them asked me whether London is safe enough to visit. There was a slight edge of uncertainty and concern in their voices – though of course the natural affection and cousinly bonhomie remained. Americans of all political persuasions seem to be subconsciously worrying that the old country is going down the wrong track. Keir Starmer has managed to make being an Englishman in New York something of an embarrassment.

The obvious political differences between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump are not necessarily a barrier to a thriving partnership. That’s just politics - and the special relationship has always been bigger than partisanship, of course. The litany of hate that Labour figures have directed at President Trump and his supporters is wrong, cringe making, awkward and embarrassing when in Republican company (I won’t repeat the inane and puerile comments of the Labour front bench – who for years have scored cheap points at metropolitan drinks and nibbles by hurling undiplomatic personal insults at the President elect). But the deeper problem is much more difficult to explain away: the decisions of the Starmer government, since Labour took office this summer, are now at serious risk of harming the UK’s reputation in the US.

I was completely perplexed, for example, to see Labour shun Elon Musk – only the world’s richest businessman – from their International Investment Summit last month. With Musk opening up a gigafactory in Germany, President Macron courting him, and our friends in Italy and Spain among others doing the same, it is excruciating to see the British government seemingly shutting the door in his face. Last year, Musk said he would “strongly consider” the UK as the location for his next gigafactory. Why on earth, after this public rejection, would the billionaire genius now want to invest in Britain? It was pleasing to see some US tech investment coming out of the summit – but there is currently a void where there should be new, sky-high levels of US money flowing into the UK. Does Labour have anything like a credible plan –- or command the heft in personal relationships – to address this?

I was also bewildered by the Government’s handling of the mini-scandal over Labour staff campaigning for Kamala Harris. This was a group of political enthusiasts using their own time and money to campaign for her – and there is no rule in the UK system to say there is anything wrong with that (Americans must be the judge of their own appetite for such activity in their elections). But once a political storm had blown up, what did Downing Street do? Rather than immediately getting on the phone and trying to smooth out the relationship with President Trump, Keir Starmer sat on his hands and let this trifling party-level gust blow into a category one diplomatic hurricane. Rather than building a bridge, senior members of the Government were ordered onto the airwaves to criticise the now President elect for “creating controversy”.

On the contrary, it is Labour’s ideological bent and lack of diplomatic nous that risks creating the controversy in the special relationship in the next four years – not President Trump. UK Ministers must be extremely careful not to put petty party politics above wealth and job creation – remember when Starmer told us his top priority is growth? Sure, it’s not higher GDP growth (yet), but US stocks just had their fifth best ever single-day gain in market cap, on the back of the news of a decisive Trump victory. And that’s not to mention a 7 per cent gain in Bitcoin hitting an all-time-high of more than $75,000. The President elect is making financial history and he isn’t even yet back in the White House. Is the UK going to embrace the fact it is morning again in America – or are we going to whinge like a bunch of condescending limeys? I know my answer.

Labour supremos probably find all of this rip-roaring capitalism goes against their political instincts – but their job now is to place their own political feelings aside and concentrate on helping create well-paid, high-quality jobs for the British people. The UK government should broker a huge new economic partnership with a reinvigorated and dynamic America (and yes, it could be powered by a free trade agreement). This will not be achieved by panicking about as yet theoretical tariffs, or miserabilist mumbling, or bureaucratic pessimism. The unique selling point of Keir Starmer’s Labour seems to be an interminable moralisation and sermonisation about the importance of being a “grown up”, acting in the national interest and putting politics aside. That creed is now facing its acid test. Labour must take their own advice, put their personal politics behind them, and make the best British products and services our chief export – and stop treating the new American golden age with snooty disdain.


Lord Kempsell is a Conservative peer