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What UK's New Leaders Have Said About Donald Trump, January 6

Newsweek 2024/10/5

The U.K. Labour Party's landslide election victory could lead to awkwardness for its leaders if Donald Tump becomes president again in November, after some of the things they have said about the former president.

Labour's Sir Keir Starmer has replaced Conservative Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister, and will be the person the next U.S. President has to work with after Americans go to the ballot box themselves.

If Donald Trump is elected, which many polls suggest will be the case, he will face working with U.K. leaders from the opposite end of the political spectrum who have not held back about him, especially over the January 6 riots at the Capitol in 2021.

The day after the violence, Sir Keir told the BBC: "President Trump has to take responsibility. What happened was appalling, it wasn't a protest, it was an attack on democracy and responsibility lies with President Trump—no doubt about that."

He went on: "I think this is the culmination of years of the politics of hate and division—and this is where it leads. And that is why we all have to make the case for tolerance and respect and changing that culture. This is where hatred and division gets you—and it's a very, very bad place."

Similarly, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner, wrote on January 6: "The violence that Donald Trump has unleashed is terrifying, and the Republicans who stood by him have blood on their hands. Our spineless Prime Minister and toadying Foreign Secretary have to also take their fair share of shame for not calling out his lies after the election."

She has made other disparaging comments about Trump, calling former Prime Minister Boris Johnson a budget version of Trump, in the wake of a report revealing the extent of the British government's bad behavior during COVID lockdowns, where they were found to have broken their own rules multiple times.

Rayner said at the time: "(Boris Johnson) continues to act like a Poundshop Trump in the way in which he tries to discredit anybody who criticizes his actions."

London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has often had critical things to say about Trump, and the topic of January 6 was no exception.

In November 2022, after Trump was allowed to return to Twitter, Khan wrote in a statement: "Trump's actions have put people at risk from hate crimes and physical violence and he encouraged an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected U.S. government on 6 January. We already know it could happen again if he is allowed back."

Last year, he told Piers Morgan Uncensored: "What happened at Capitol Hill, for those who are agnostic or not sure, should be the final straw in relation for his fitness for office."

In 2017, after Trump was elected for the first time and both men exchanged words with each other on social media, Khan even called for Trump's U.K. state visit to be canceled.

However, Starmer has previously said Labour would have to get along with Trump as president, telling the BBC's Political Thinking podcast in 2023: "We have to make it work. That doesn't mean that … we would agree on everything, but we have to make it work.

"I think one of the things about being a leader is you don't get to choose the other leaders around the world. That is the job of democracies … But in a grown-up world, you have to make that relationship work."

More recently, the U.K.'s new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, who once called Trump a "neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath," has implied there could be a better relationship between them.

In May, in the wake of Trump saying he would "encourage" Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" to NATO countries who do not fulfill their financial obligations, Lammy defended him.

Trump Britain
Then-President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May at Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, England, in 2018. If Trump gets elected this year, he may have to work with Sir Keir Starmer....

Although he thought the words were "shocking," he said Trump just "wants Europeans to do more to ensure a better defended Europe."

Meanwhile, Trump has congratulated his friend Nigel Farage for his new right-wing Reform U.K. party winning four seats, after achieving 14.3 percent of the vote.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social website: "Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a Parliament Seat Amid Reform UK Election Success. Nigel is a man who truly loves his Country! DJT."

Newsweek has contacted the Labour Party for any further comment on how they plan to work with Trump if he is elected.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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