A dozen members of Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet have criticised Donald Trump in recent years, with chastisements that include calling him “inflammatory and ignorant”, “a sociopath”, an “absolute moron”, “a profound threat”, “a racist, misogynistic, self-confessed groper”, and “the worst president in history”.
The UK prime minister — who met US President Joe Biden during this week’s Nato summit — has called November’s vote “a matter for the American people” and pledged to work with “whoever they choose as their president”.
But more than half of his cabinet, including now-foreign secretary David Lammy and home secretary Yvette Cooper, previously criticised Trump, many using colourful language.
Polls have suggested that Trump may return to power this year, as Democrats worry that Biden’s age could hobble his re-election bid.
Starmer himself, who became Labour leader in 2020, lambasted the former president in 2021 after the attack on the US Congress by a mob attempting to undo Biden’s win in the 2020 election.
He said Trump “has to take responsibility” for the incident, though the Labour leader has since avoided direct rebukes.
In 2018, Lammy as a backbench MP said: “Trump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath, he is also a profound threat to the international order.”
The following year he called Trump a “serial liar and a cheat” who was also “deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic and . . . no friend of Britain”.
In January 2021 he said that “Joe Biden replacing Donald Trump as president fills me with joy”. Later that year he was appointed as shadow foreign secretary.
Lammy — who has several high-profile friends in the Democrat party including Barack Obama — has more recently tempered his language, saying in May: “Whoever is in the White House or Number 10 in a big election year, we must work together.”
Reflecting on his past comments, he added: “You’re going to struggle to find any politician in the western world who hasn’t had things to say in response to Donald Trump.”
As shadow foreign secretary, he began building bridges with senior Trump allies — meeting Republican senators Lindsey Graham and JD Vance during a visit to Washington earlier this year in which Lammy called himself a “small-c conservative” and stressed he could find “common cause” with Trump.
However, the foreign secretary’s previous comments have prompted speculation that Starmer may seek to replace him if Trump returns to the Oval Office after November’s election.
Yet Lammy is not alone among senior Labour figures who have made past remarks.
Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister, said in 2021 after the Capitol Hill riots that Conservative ministers were “spineless” and “toadying” for failing to call out Trump’s “lies”.
She added: “The violence that Donald Trump has unleashed is terrifying, and the Republicans who stood by him have blood on their hands.”
Cooper joined a women’s march in 2017 to “take a stand against Donald Trump”, saying: “We are marching because the most powerful man in the [US] thinks it’s OK to grab women ‘by the pussy’.”
The same year, the now-home secretary argued against the British government giving Trump a state visit with its ceremonial “endorsement”.
Ed Miliband, energy secretary, wrote in 2016: “The idea that we have shared values with a racist, misogynistic, self-confessed groper beggars belief.” A year later he called Trump an “absolute moron”, and in 2018 castigated “his racist attacks . . . his lies, his admiration for dictators”.
Welsh secretary Jo Stevens said in 2019 that Trump was a “racist, sexist, sharer of extremist ideology, a serial liar and a cheat”.
Other now-cabinet ministers including health secretary Wes Streeting, culture secretary Lisa Nandy, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn and environment secretary Steve Reed have all written stinging criticisms about Trump.
As Trump prepared to leave office in early 2021, Ian Murray, now Scotland secretary, said: “Fourteen days until the worst president in history exits the stage. He leaves with no dignity and a legacy that’s an embarrassment to the world.”
When asked about the comments, a Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour government will always respect the will of the American people and work positively with all US administrations on our two nation’s shared endeavours.
“As part of the special relationship, Labour figures have always maintained close relationships with their counterparts from both parties.”
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