We will always stand up for British interests against Trump

The UK Government will not shy away from standing up for British interests when Donald Trump enters the White House, the Culture Secretary has insisted.

Downing Street is braced for a dramatic shift in the special relationship once the president-elect is inaugurated next year, but Lisa Nandy said the Trump administration would “welcome” robust conversations from the UK side.

Speaking to i, Nandy, who served as shadow foreign secretary during the previous Trump presidency, said the special relationship has always been important to the UK and US and has survived many changes of leader in both the UK and US.

“The last time Donald Trump was president we had a similar debate here in the UK and they welcome a robust conversation, they always have,” she said.

“They expect us to stand up for Britain’s interests and they expect us to be clear about our values and they have no quarrel with that and that’s the sort of respectful relationship that we sought last time and that’s the kind of respectful relationship that we will seek in government.”

During the previous Trump administration, Downing Street was often blindsided by the President’s outbursts, with Baroness May later admitting after she had left No 10 that she “never knew what to expect” when dealing with the incoming US leader.

The former Tory prime minister was forced to condemn Trump’s travel ban into the US from predominantly Muslim countries as “divisive and wrong”.

In a piece for the Daily Mail in 2020, she wrote: “With Donald Trump, I never knew what to expect — from being offered, sometimes literally, the hand of friendship to hearing him question core tenets of the transatlantic alliance.

“When a British prime minister walks out for a joint press conference with the world’s media unsure if the United States president standing next to her will agree that Nato is a bulwark of our collective defence, you know you are living in extraordinary times.”

But Nandy said the Government “respected” that the American people had elected Trump, and was looking forward to having a “robust conversation”.

“Where we agree we will want to work closely with the United States, where we disagree we will want to be able to have these conversations with him,” she said.

The Cabinet minister added that the fact Sir Keir Starmer and his Foreign Secretary David Lammy had already established a relationship with Trump and his team before his election “speaks very well of the intent on both sides”.

Her comments come after i reported that Labour MPs had suggested that fellow MPs should “bite their tongues” when it came to speaking out against the Trump administration and its reform agenda.

Nandy said backbenchers should “act with their conscience” but added that most MPs from all sides of the Commons “believe it is in Britain’s interest to have a good and strong and robust relationship with the United States”.