Since taking office in July, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sought to balance good relations with President Joe Biden with preparation for whoever might replace him. For example, Starmer took advantage of U.K. Ambassador to the United States Karen Pierce’s effective engagement with former President Donald Trump to meet with the Republican presidential nominee in New York last month.
As America’s closest ally, the U.K. has a vested interest in maintaining the “special relationship” whether Vice President Kamala Harris or Trump is elected. That relationship is critical to the U.K.’s economic and security well-being. But now, Starmer’s own Labour Party has thrown a wrench in his bipartisan works.
As Politics U.K. reported on Thursday, a top Labour Party official is helping to arrange for “nearly 100” current and former Labour staff members to travel to battleground states to campaign for Harris. The Washington Examiner understands that these trips are being made on a personal basis rather than by the Labour Party or with party funding. The U.K. government had no role in organizing these trips. Still, it’s hard to see how Starmer would be anything but furious with what’s happening here.
Trump’s general inability to dissect his personal interests from the national interest is well-understood abroad. Yet, as Starmer’s government attempts to woo China (its foreign secretary is currently in China doing just that), the U.K. already faces a tough balancing act in maintaining the special relationship if Trump wins. After all, China is likely to be the focal nemesis of a Trump part deux foreign policy. The growing threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and near-daily attacks on Filipino vessels by the Chinese coast guard means that the U.S. doesn’t want to see its closest ally playing footsie with Beijing.
True, Trump is deeply unpopular across the parliamentary political spectrum in the U.K. A former minister in Boris Johnson’s Conservative government has also campaigned for Harris, for example. And as with the vast majority of U.S. allies, the U.K. government fears Trump’s unpredictability and favors the perceived political normality of Harris. But it’s not exactly a secret that Americans tend to detest foreign lecturing. The U.K.’s unique historical position in terms of U.S. political history makes this concern especially sensitive.
We’ve been down a similar road before. In 2004, the newspaper of record of the British Left, the Guardian, organized for its readers to write to voters in Ohio in an effort to persuade them to cast their vote for then-Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. The effort backfired astonishingly, leading to a tidal wave of Americans demanding that the “Limeys” stay out of the election.
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This latest waltz is likely to have the same effect.
Regardless, Starmer should fear that a newly elected Trump will view this as a personal rebuke by the prime minister. That perception would be unfair, but if Trump believes it, the die is cast. U.K. interests may suffer for it. Those organizing this campaign shouldn’t expect any Christmas cards from the U.K. Embassy or 10 Downing Street.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
