UK Labour to Trump: Let’s be friends

LONDON — Britain’s Labour government can move past a host of highly critical comments about Donald Trump and work with him if he wins the U.S. presidential election, a U.K. Cabinet minister insisted Tuesday.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting stressed the “warmth” of the relationship between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the U.S. Republican hopeful — and tried to put past criticism of Trump from top Labour figures in the rear-view mirror.

Before they came to office this July, multiple senior Labour figures laid into Trump.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy previously called Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath,” labeled him a “dangerous clown” and “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathizer.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has feuded with Trump, telling POLITICO that the presidential candidate is “a racist. He’s a sexist. He’s a homophobe.” The Trump campaign has even accused Labour of election meddling.

Nigel Farage, a British Trump ally who heads up the Reform UK party in the U.K., has said such comments would make it “difficult for a period,” but that Trump may be open to reconciliation.

Streeting told LBC Tuesday: “I think it’s fair to say that we may not be ideological bedfellows with President Trump, but if he’s returned as president of the United States, there will be a really good working relationship.”

He added: “To be fair to Nigel Farage … he is a firm supporter of Donald Trump.

“He was reflecting overnight that whatever some of the noise we’ve heard about, you know that legal action or indeed things that we said about President Trump in the past, that we’ll be able to work effectively together as partners and and as allies.”

Streeting’s comments come as Americans head to the polls and as the U.K. prepares for a potential second Trump administration.

The Republican nominee has threatened to slap tariffs on all imports into the U.S., a move which could cripple global trade. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told POLITICO U.K. officials were “extremely well prepared” for such an outcome.

Government ministers and officials in London are meanwhile eager to ensure ongoing U.S. support for Ukraine if Trump wins.

Stefan Boscia contributed reporting.