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Sir Keir Starmer has rejected “utterly” the idea that Britain will have to choose a side between Donald Trump’s incoming US administration and the EU, in a set-piece foreign policy speech in the City of London.
Speaking at Guildhall, the UK prime minister vowed to strengthen relations with Washington, Brussels and Beijing, as he promised to put foreign policy at the service of his government’s main mission: economic growth.
With growth sluggish and business confidence fragile, Starmer attempted to reassure his City audience that he would be pragmatic and put boosting the economy ahead of ideology.
He said the previous Conservative government had been “veering from one extreme to another”, including on relations with Beijing, suggesting he would adopt a less hostile stance.
Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves are planning high-level meetings with the Chinese leadership, and the prime minister last month declined at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro to publicly condemn sentences handed down to 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.
But some of Starmer’s warmest words were reserved for Trump and the US, in an acknowledgment that he needs a strong relationship with Washington for economic and strategic purposes.
Starmer said Trump had “graciously hosted me for dinner in Trump Tower” in September. “I told him that we will invest more deeply than ever in the transatlantic bond with our American friends,” he added.
“The idea that we must choose between our allies — that somehow we’re with either America or Europe — is plain wrong. I reject it utterly,” Starmer added. “[Clement] Attlee did not choose between allies, [Winston] Churchill did not. The national interest demands we work with both.”
Kemi Badenoch, Conservative party leader, has said Starmer should strike a trade deal with Trump, an approach that might complicate his efforts to improve trade with the EU. Navigating that challenge will be a defining task for him in 2025.
Of Britain’s relationship with the EU, Starmer said: “This is about looking forward, not back. There will be no return to freedom of movement, no return to the customs union and no return to the single market.
“Instead we will find practical agile ways to co-operate which serve the national interest.”
Starmer also used his speech to repeat his commitment to supporting Ukraine, but made it clear that he thought an end to the conflict with Russia would ultimately have to be negotiated.
“We must continue to back Ukraine and do what it takes to support their self-defence for as long as it takes,” he said. “To put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations so they can secure a just and lasting peace on their terms that guarantees their security, independence and the right to choose their own future.”
Starmer has been accused of spending too much time abroad in his first five months in power and on Thursday will attempt to reset his domestic agenda with a speech setting out a “plan for change”.
On Monday he insisted that Attlee’s government from 1945-51 had shown it was possible to combine a strong domestic programme with a tough foreign policy, describing that administration as “hard-headed, patriotic”.