Good morning. As the Labour authorities tries to work out what having Donald Trump again within the White House will imply for Britain, and what it should do in response, David Lammy is totally on the centre of that debate. Partly that’s as a result of he’s international secretary, and partly it’s as a result of (in a crowded discipline) he’s in all probability the British MP who has been most outspoken and significant about Trump up to now.
Lammy has now given an extended interview to the BBC’s Newscast podcast to debate these points. And, as Jamie Grierson stories, he dismissed ideas that his previous diatribes about Trump would harm the connection now by describing his feedback as “old news”.
But Lammy additionally pushed again in opposition to ideas that Trump’s election could be wholly unfavourable and he mentioned it may additionally current “opportunities” for Britain.
Asked if he accepted that Trump’s election had made life “harder” for the UK authorities, Lammy mentioned they would definitely be “different”. But, when it was put to him that he was simply being diplomatic, Lammy didn’t settle for that. He mentioned he needed to make two factors.
The very first thing is to say that, on the entire, international coverage is much less partisan than home coverage. And that’s the case within the American system as a lot as it’s in our system.
The second factor to say is, sure, there shall be variations and there shall be areas the place we disagree really, I think.
But there are additionally alternatives and we shouldn’t underestimate the alternatives that there shall be as effectively. And we should seize these.
Lammy mentioned he thought Trump was proper to argue that Europe wanted to spend extra on defence. Asked about claims that the British economic system could be harmed by the tariffs that Trump plans to impose, Lammy advised that will be counter-productive for the US, and he advised that the UK would possibly have the ability to get exemptions. He additionally mentioned that in international coverage there could be areas the place the UK and a Trump administration had widespread pursuits.
In a world the place there’s warfare in Europe, the place there’s an incredible lack of life within the Middle East, the place the US and the UK genuinely have a particular relationship, the place we obtained somebody who’s about to turn out to be once more the US president who has expertise of doing the job final time round, we’ll forge widespread pursuits. We will agree and align on a lot and, the place we disagree, we’ll have these conversations as effectively, most frequently in non-public.
I’ll put up extra from the interview quickly.
Otherwise, it appears to be like like a comparatively quiet day. Parliament is in recess. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem chief, is because of be speaking about Ukraine throughout a go to later. And the Reform UK Welsh convention is going down in Newport, the place Nigel Farage is because of converse at 5pm.
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