Keir Starmer told to 'stop cosying up' to Donald Trump
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking programme on Friday, Starmer said: "For both of us, we really care about family and there's a point of connection there.
"I think I do understand what anchors the president, what he really cares about."
Keir Starmer and Donald Trump (Image: PA) Starmer has been criticised by the Scottish Greens, who accused him of "glamorising" his relationship with Trump.
The party pointed towards Donald Trump's hush money conviction in 2023, as well as the US president's policies on healthcare and immigration, as they urged the Prime Minister to instead stand for "the values of democracy and human rights".
READ MORE: SNP left wing push back against internal 'inertia' over indy strategy
Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman said that under Donald Trump, the US "is in turmoil".
She said: 'His administration is sending innocent people to be tortured in foreign countries, he's just passed a bill that will strip 17 million Americans of their healthcare, he's begun an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the poor to his billionaire supporters, and he has openly called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
Maggie Chapman (Image: Christian Gamauf) 'For a UK Prime Minister to sit there and talk about his shared values with this President should set off alarm bells in every institution and every voter in this country.
"Cosying up to a racist, misogynistic, climate-wrecking authoritarian like Donald Trump is the last thing we should be doing."
Chapman said that "if we don't have our values, we have nothing", as she added: 'While values may be a flexible concept to Keir Starmer – if you don't like his values he, opportunistically, has others – it must not be for our country."
The Scottish Greens MSP said Downing Street is "copying Trump's homework" by attempting to push through cuts to disability benefits to boost "spending on war and defence".
READ MORE: Details emerge of Scottish arm of new Corbyn project
'Rather than working to overcome 14 years of Tory austerity and rebuild the country, Starmer is doubling down on the same disastrous policies that got us into the mess we're in," she added.
Chapman went on to say that Labour were continuing to "echo the White House by refusing to end their active participation in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza".
She continued: "We see the death-toll mounting daily. We watch as innocent civilians are shot or blown up while waiting for food inside barbed wire enclosures.
"Keir Starmer can't even bring himself to call out these atrocities, never mind end the UK's training and arming of those perpetrating them."
Chapman asked: 'Are these the family values he speaks of so fondly? Is this really the path we want to follow?
"Starmer must end this pathetic grovelling to the US President and begin standing up for real values – democracy, human rights, and a fair economy that improves living standards for everyone.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Guardian
38 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Miliband says UK's way of life ‘under threat' amid extremes of heat and rainfall
The latest state of the UK climate report, published in the Royal Meteorological Society's International Journal of Climatology, shows the impact of human-caused global warming on the UK's weather, seas, people and wildlife. From earlier spring events in nature to record warm periods in 2024, which have already been beaten again this year, Met Office experts say the UK's climate is 'notably different' from just a few decades ago. The report details the climate in 2024, and over the longer term, highlighting how the UK has warmed at a rate of about 0.25C a decade and is now about 1.24C warmer than from 1961 to 1990. For the first time, the report also found UK sea levels to be rising faster than the global average. The Energy Secretary called the findings 'a stark warning' to take action on climate and nature. 'Our British way of life is under threat,' Mr Miliband told the PA news agency. 'Whether it is extreme heat, droughts, flooding, we can see it actually with our own eyes, that it's already happening, and we need to act. 'That's why the Government has a central mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and tackle the climate crisis.' On those who oppose Labour's green policies, he said: '(U)nless, we act on the cause of what is happening, the cause of what is changing our climate, then we will be betraying future generations.' He spoke during a visit to a project restoring a rare alkaline fen at Hinksey Heights, Oxfordshire, with Environment Secretary Steve Reed, ahead of the report's release. Conservationists told the ministers how the fen, which is part of a national effort to expand the country's best freshwater habitats, was helping to boost wetland biodiversity and sequester planet-heating carbon in the atmosphere. Responding to the report, Mr Reed told PA it 'lays absolutely bare the damaging impact of climate change on people living in this country'. But he said that through projects like the fen, 'we're tackling the problem of nature loss and also we're tackling the problem of climate change at the same time'. One year in, Labour has been fiercely criticised over its approach to the environment, including concerns around planning reforms sidelining nature in pursuit of growth. The Environment Secretary defended the Government's actions, pointing to boosting funding for sustainable farming and developing the nature restoration fund so that money from house builders goes towards more impactful landscape-scale projects. 'We'd become one of the most nature-depleted countries on earth,' he said. 'This Government is calling time on that decline.' Elsewhere, the report said that the last three years have been in the top five warmest on record for the UK. Last year was the fourth warmest in records dating back to 1884, while the year had the warmest May and warmest spring on record – already beaten by 2025's record hot spring. But Mike Kendon, Met Office climate scientist and lead author of the report, said: 'It's the extremes of temperature and rainfall that is changing the most, and that's of profound concern, and that's going to continue in the future.' The hottest summer days have warmed about twice as much as average summer days have in the past decade in some parts of the UK, according to new analysis in the report. And as the UK's climate warms, it is also getting wetter, with extremes of rainfall, floods and storms in 2024, as in recent years. England and Wales had the wettest winter from October 2023 to March 2024 on record in more than 250 years, as floods hit Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, the West Midlands and eastern Scotland. But while red warnings were issued for storm Isha in January and storm Darragh in December, observations do not currently suggest the UK is becoming stormier or windier. Overall, however, the country's weather is changing because of rising greenhouse gases pushing up global temperature, Mr Kendon said, with records being broken 'very frequently'. 'Every year that goes by is another upward step on the warming trajectory our climate is on,' he said. 'Observations show that our climate in the UK is now notably different to what it was just a few decades ago.' The report also said tide gauge records since the 1900s show sea level rise around the UK is speeding up, with two-thirds of the rise of that time taking place in just the last three decades. Dr Svetlana Jevrejeva, from the National Oceanography Centre, said the UK's coasts would start to see more events where rising sea levels combined with high tides would lead to coastal inundation, even without storms. 'This extra sea level rise contribution is leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme sea levels and an intensification of coastal hazards,' she said. To highlight the impact of the UK's warming climate on wildlife, the report drew on Nature's Calendar, a volunteer-fed database of the natural signs of the changing seasons managed by the Woodland Trust. Records for 2024 show that spring was earlier than average for 12 of the 13 spring events monitored, and the earliest in the data running back to 1999 for frogspawn appearing and blackbirds nesting. The period of the year in which leaves were on trees from spring to autumn was also longer than average, mostly because of the earlier spring in 2024. Chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, Professor Liz Bentley, said the report reinforced the 'clear and urgent signals of our changing climate'.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Oil edges up, investors eye Trump statement on Russia
SINGAPORE, July 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices nudged higher on Monday, adding to gains of more than 2% from Friday, as investors eyed further U.S. sanctions on Russia that may affect global supplies, but a ramp-up in Saudi output and ongoing tariff uncertainty limited gains. Brent crude futures rose 8 cents to $70.44 a barrel by 0011 GMT, extending a 2.51% gain on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbed to $68.50, up 5 cents, after settling 2.82% higher in the previous session. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine. He is due to make a "major statement" on Russia on Monday. Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin due to the lack of progress in ending the war in Ukraine and Russia's intensifying bombardment of Ukrainian cities. In a bid to pressure Moscow into good-faith peace negotiations with Ukraine, a bipartisan U.S. bill that would hit Russia with sanctions gained momentum last week in Congress, but it still awaits support from Trump. European Union envoys are on the verge of agreeing an 18th package of sanctions against Russia that would include a lower price cap on Russian oil, four EU sources said after a Sunday meeting. Last week, Brent rose 3%, while WTI had a weekly gain of around 2.2%, after the International Energy Agency said the global oil market may be tighter than it appears, with demand supported by peak summer refinery runs to meet travel and power generation. However, ANZ analysts said price gains were limited by data showing Saudi Arabia lifted oil output above its quota under the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies' supply agreement. The IEA said that Saudi Arabia exceeded its oil output target for June by 430,000 barrels per day to reach 9.8 million bpd, compared with the kingdom's implied OPEC+ target of 9.37 million bpd. Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said on Friday the kingdom had been fully compliant with its voluntary OPEC+ output target, adding that Saudi marketed crude supply in June was 9.352 million bpd, in line with the agreed quota. Elsewhere, the release of China's preliminary commodity trade data later on Monday should highlight any ongoing signs of weaker demand, ANZ said in a note. Investors are also eyeing the outcome of U.S. tariff talks with key trading partners that could impact global economic growth and fuel demand.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Trump says US will send Patriot missiles to Ukraine
WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine, saying they are necessary to defend the country because Russian President Vladimir Putin "talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening." Trump did not give a number of Patriots he plans to send to Ukraine, but he said the United States would be reimbursed for their cost by the European Union. The U.S. president has grown increasingly disenchanted with Putin because the Russian leader has resisted Trump's attempts to negotiate a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked for more defensive capabilities to fend off a daily barrage of missile and drone attacks from Russia. "We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening. But there's a little bit of a problem there. I don't like it," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington. "We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100% for that, and that's the way we want it," Trump said. He plans to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to discuss Ukraine and other issues this week.
