Donald Trump was on “good form” at the G7 summit, Sir Keir Starmer has insisted after a gaffe-filled media appearance led to questions about the US president’s health.
The Prime Minister also said he rushed to pick up signed documents which Mr Trump dropped on the floor to prevent a security scare following the completion of the British-American trade deal.
The two leaders had posed for pictures with the official paperwork after finalising the transatlantic agreement at the G7 summit on Monday, when the president accidentally let a sheaf of files fall to the ground.
He also mistakenly referred to the pact as “a trade agreement with the European Union”.
Sir Keir said he bent to pick up the paperwork because there are “quite strict rules about who can get close to the president”.
Asked whether people should be concerned about the US leader’s health, the Prime Minister told reporters at the G7 conference in Canada: “No.
“I mean, look, there weren’t many choices with the documents and picking it up, because one, as you probably know there were quite strict rules about who can get close to the president.
“I was just deeply conscious that in a situation like it would not have been good for anybody else to have stepped forwards – not that any of you rushed to!
“There’s a very tightly guarded security zone around the president, as you would expect.”
He added: “But no, he was in good form yesterday, and I mean we had, I don’t know how many sessions yesterday together at the G7 and then into the evening session as well.”
He said he was “just really pleased that we signed the executive order” which the Government says will protect 44,000 jobs at Jaguar Land Rover alone.
Mr Trump, who turned 79 on Saturday, abruptly left the summit of leaders from the world’s major economies amid escalating conflict in the Middle East on Monday.
Hours before his departure, he and Sir Keir rubber-stamped a long-coveted deal that will slash tariffs for British carmakers and the aerospace sector, but leaves the future of import taxes on UK steel hanging in the balance.
The agreement will grant the auto industry a reprieve by the end of June as levies drop from 25% to 10%, while the aerospace sector will face no tariffs.
Tariffs for the steel industry, which is of key economic importance to the UK, will stand at 25% for now rather than falling to zero as originally agreed. This is less than the US global rate of 50% for steel and aluminium.
The two leaders pledged to “make progress towards 0% tariffs on core steel products as agreed”.
The Prime Minister said the move marked a “very important day” for both sides while the US president praised Sir Keir as a “friend” who had done a “great job” securing the deal that had eluded leaders before him.
“We’re very long-time partners and allies and friends, and we’ve become friends in a short period of time,” Mr Trump said.
“He’s slightly more liberal than I am to put it mildly.”
“We make it work,” Sir Keir joked.
Asked on Tuesday why he thought the US president liked him despite their differing political backgrounds, the Prime Minister said: “That’s really for him to answer rather than me, but we do have a good relationship.
“I think that is in the national interest, frankly. There’s long been a close relationship between the US and the UK.
“As I’ve said many times, on defence and security and intelligence sharing in particular, we are closer than any two countries, and I’m very pleased that I’ve got a good relationship with him – notwithstanding, as both he and I acknowledge, that our political backgrounds are different.”
