'Pathetic grovelling': Keir Starmer told to 'stop cosying up' to Donald Trump

LABOUR must "stop cosying up" to Donald Trump, Keir Starmer has been warned.

It comes after the Prime Minister said last week that he understood what the president cares about and that they had bonded over shared family values.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking programme on Friday, Starmer said: "For both of us, we really care about family and there's a point of connection there.

"I think I do understand what anchors the president, what he really cares about."

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump (Image: PA) Starmer has been criticised by the Scottish Greens, who accused him of "glamorising" his relationship with Trump.

The party pointed towards Donald Trump's hush money conviction in 2023, as well as the US president's policies on healthcare and immigration, as they urged the Prime Minister to instead stand for "the values of democracy and human rights".

Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman said that under Donald Trump, the US "is in turmoil".

She said: “His administration is sending innocent people to be tortured in foreign countries, he’s just passed a bill that will strip 17 million Americans of their healthcare, he’s begun an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the poor to his billionaire supporters, and he has openly called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

Maggie Chapman (Image: Christian Gamauf) “For a UK Prime Minister to sit there and talk about his shared values with this President should set off alarm bells in every institution and every voter in this country.

"Cosying up to a racist, misogynistic, climate-wrecking authoritarian like Donald Trump is the last thing we should be doing."

Chapman said that "if we don't have our values, we have nothing", as she added:  “While values may be a flexible concept to Keir Starmer – if you don’t like his values he, opportunistically, has others – it must not be for our country."

The Scottish Greens MSP said Downing Street is "copying Trump's homework" by attempting to push through cuts to disability benefits to boost "spending on war and defence".

“Rather than working to overcome 14 years of Tory austerity and rebuild the country, Starmer is doubling down on the same disastrous policies that got us into the mess we’re in," she added.

Chapman went on to say that Labour were continuing to "echo the White House by refusing to end their active participation in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza".

She continued: "We see the death-toll mounting daily. We watch as innocent civilians are shot or blown up while waiting for food inside barbed wire enclosures.

"Keir Starmer can’t even bring himself to call out these atrocities, never mind end the UK’s training and arming of those perpetrating them."

Chapman asked: “Are these the family values he speaks of so fondly? Is this really the path we want to follow?

"Starmer must end this pathetic grovelling to the US President and begin standing up for real values – democracy, human rights, and a fair economy that improves living standards for everyone.”