There used to be a sign up in No. 10 which quoted Gilbert and Sullivan. ‘Quiet calm deliberation disentangles every knot,’ read the plaque, installed by Harold Macmillan. It is advice that Keir Starmer has taken to heart, as Donald Trump seemingly tries to tie Nato in as many twists and bows as possible. The Prime Minister had an unenviable task in his press conference this morning. He sought to both firmly resist Trump’s demands to annex Greenland – while desperately trying not to escalate the issue further. His approach might be summed up by another Macmillan quote: that ‘jaw, jaw is better than war war.’
At his presser, Starmer’s tone was grave, noting how the world has become ‘markedly more turbulent in recent weeks’. He began by restating HMG’s long-standing position. The Prime Minister said that Trump’s plan to punish the UK with tariffs was ‘completely wrong’. Any decision about Greenland’s future ‘belongs to the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone’. He spoke to the value of alliances: a pillar of America’s strength since 1945. ‘Alliances endure,’ he said, ‘because they’re built on respect and partnership, not pressure, that is why I said the use of tariffs against allies is completely wrong.’
The Prime Minister continues to insist that a ‘tariff war is in no one’s interests’
The Prime Minister, though, continues to insist that a ‘tariff war is in no one’s interests’. ‘We have not got to that stage,’ he told reporters. ‘My focus is making sure we don’t get to that stage.’ He implied that, while the EU is pressing ahead with a £78 billion retaliation package, the British response will be private, not public action. He ducked the chance to back cancelling the King’s forthcoming state visit – and bravely said, a fortnight after the Caracas raid, that Trump will not turn to military action. ‘Calm discussion’ was, in Starmer’s view, the best way forward – with the Prime Minister patiently detailing US-UK cooperation on defence, intelligence and security. ‘That requires us to have a good relationship with the United States,’ he argued. There was a pointed jibe too at politicians using the crisis to sound off on social media: a rejection of the ‘performance politics’ approach that Starmer professes to disdain.
Ed Balls, the former shadow chancellor and a keen drummer, used to use a musical analogy to reflect two types of people in politics. There were ‘amplifiers’ and ‘dampers’ – those who, respectively, turned up the volume and those who sought to damp it down. Today’s press conference showed again that Keir Starmer is a resolute member of the latter camp, refusing to attack the President by name and restating his belief in diplomatic means. Amid the crash and noise of Trump’s second term, Starmer just has to hope that speaking softly in private will mean more than sounding off in public
