Labor is “working hard” to win over Trump if he beats Harris

Labor has worked hard to win over Donald Trump if he is re-elected, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said.

Polls have opened in the US for Americans to start voting in what will be a head-to-head race for the US presidency between Kamala Harris and Trump.

Sir Keir Starmer will have a rocky ride if Trump wins, in part because of the scathing criticism current Cabinet ministers have leveled at the Republican politician while Labor was in opposition, and because of a row over Labor Party volunteers who traveled to the US to support him. Harris campaign.

The Prime Minister and Secretary of State have worked hard to build a relationship with President Trump and his team

The health secretary was asked about a 2017 social media post in which he called Trump “a despicable, sad, little man.”

“The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State have worked hard to build a relationship with President Trump and his team so that, should he be elected the next President of the United States, we begin with the strong working relationship that is in our national interest and also in the interest of the United States,” he told Good Morning Britain in response.

Mr Trump had a “very good meeting with Keir Starmer not too long ago” and “of course he’ll be aware of the things we’ve all said in the past”, Mr Streeting added.

He said Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who has called Trump a “neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath” in the past, has strong relationships with people around the former president, including his running mate JD Vance.

While Labor and Trump “may not be ideological bedfellows”, if he is elected “there will be a very good working relationship”, the Health Secretary told LBC.

He pointed to Britain’s reform leader Nigel Farage, who attended a rally in the US in support of Trump on Monday night.

“(Mr Farage) reflected overnight that regardless of the noise we’ve heard about, you know, the legal action or indeed the things we’ve said about President Trump in the past, we’re going to be able to work together effectively as partners. and also as allies.”

Meanwhile, Mr Farage said he rated Joe Biden’s presidency as “disastrous” and Ms Harris’s vice-presidency as “zero points”.

“She’s a terrible candidate,” he told LBC of the Democratic hopeful.

A Harris campaign victory would be the favorable outcome for the UK, according to one US affairs expert, while under a second Trump presidency, the UK would face a “tougher question”.

The Republican nominee is likely to chart a new US course on the major conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, areas where Sir Keir has largely followed the lead of US President Joe Biden.

“Donald Trump will have a much tougher question,” Dr Leslie Vinjamuri of Chatham House told the AP news agency, arguing that the Harris campaign would be a preferable partner to Sir Keir’s government.

Dr Vinjamuri, director of the influential think tank’s US and Americas programme, added: “I don’t think he (Mr Trump) puts the same emphasis on the history of cooperation, partnership and alliance as we have seen from the current Biden administration, or as we would probably see from a Harris administration. He’s much more transactional.”

Mr Trump is likely to push European NATO members to target spending of 3% of GDP (gross domestic product) on defence, she told the PA, an area where the UK is currently expected to spend around 2.3% of GDP in 2024 while facing problems. public finances.

Republican front-runner Mr Trump is also likely to push for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, upsetting the commitments of European leaders – including Sir Keir – to Volodymyr Zelensky’s war effort.

Dr Vinjamuri said Trump would also want to “play a significant role” in transforming the Middle East, perhaps in a strongly pro-Israel manner that could clash with Sir Keir’s pro-leaning political base -Gaza, as well as the UK’s stated position that a two-state solution is the preferred outcome of the conflict.

“The bottom line, if there is a Trump administration, is that on the security front there will be a demand to spend more and align,” Dr Vinjamuri said.

A Harris presidency would be more likely to appreciate the long-standing UK-US relationship as “reliable allies”, the expert said, but added there was no guarantee he would be a continuity figure for Biden because of the period of conflict “transition” and turmoil across the globe.

Sir Keir has drawn the ire of some republicans in recent weeks. The Trump-Vance team filed a formal complaint with US federal election officials after reports that Labor Party officials met with and volunteered for the Harris campaign.

The prime minister insisted this was no different to similar cooperation in previous elections and sought to build ties with both candidates, meeting Trump in New York in September.

Efforts to ease the relationship if Mr Trump wins are likely to be helped by a royal charm offensive, Dr Vinjamuri said.

“Trump had a deep affection and a deep sense of Her Majesty the Queen and that really mattered a lot. It helped a lot with the US-UK relationship,” she said.

She added: “There is no sense that this will continue or be transferred to the King, which is not to say that Donald Trump has any dislike, but there is no apparent sense of deep admiration in the way that he has so of course for the queen. . So you take away that kind of, that thing that really mattered to Donald Trump, kind of tamed it down, and I think it’s a very different proposition.”

Both Trump and Ms. Harris made their final campaign push with American voters in so-called swing states such as Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, where the race is expected to be close.

In the US voting system, a total of 270 votes are needed in what is known as the electoral college to win the presidential election.

Ms Harris leads Mr Trump in YouGov’s final prediction ahead of the US election, with the poll predicting she has 240 electoral votes to Mr Trump’s 218, while another 80 remain uncertain.

Key issues in the race to become the next US president include security at the US southern border with Mexico, abortion rights and reducing inflation.