Keir Starmer risks diplomatic crisis with Donald Trump after David Lammy appointment
Sir Keir has appointed David Lammy to the Foreign Office - but it could rub Republicans and Brexiteers up the wrong way.
Sir Keir Starmer has risked diplomatic awkwardness after appointing David Lammy to the Foreign Office, one of the four ‘great offices of state’.
Mr Lammy had been Shadow Foreign Secretary since November 2021, though his longevity in the role hadn’t stopped widespread speculation that he may be ditched should Sir Keir make it to No. 10.
The move is one of the new Government’s riskier appointments, and could spark diplomatic hostility between Britain and the United States should Donald Trump re-take the White House later this year.
In 2018, Mr Lammy launched several verbal attacks on the then-President, writing that he is a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.
He continued: “He is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of Western progress for so long."
“It is because I cherish and champion those values that this Friday, I will march with London against Donald Trump.”
In April this year, Mr Lammy appeared to walk back from his previous anti-Trump hatred, saying he agreed with the Republican hopeful that not every NATO member is currently pulling its weight on defence spending.
He said Mr Trump “most definitely has a point” about ‘free riders’ within the defence pact and insisted he supported calls for “more burden sharing”.
Sir Keir may have been reassured to keep Mr Lammy in situ after the new Foreign Secretary met with Mr Trump’s campaign manager in May.
Mr Lammy met Chris LaCivita, Mr Trump’s most senior advisor, during a trip to Washington DC. It came after a six-month concerted effort to woo Mr Trump’s inner circle members.
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In a speech at a Washington think tank, Mr Lammy said he and Donald Trump could find “common cause”, suggesting that as a “good Christian boy” and “small-C conservative” he shared some Republican views.
Despite this diplomatic effort to smooth out potential tensions with the next US president, the Express understands that Foreign Office civil servants did spend time considering the possibility Mr Lammy may not be appointed Foreign Secretary in the new Keir Starmer ministry.
Back in Britain, Mr Lammy’s appointment may still cause consternation among the right as one of parliament’s most vitriolic Remainers during the Brexit battles.
In April 2019, Mr Lammy compared the European Research Group of Conservative MPs to Nazis and proponents of South African apartheid, before doubling down that his criticism had not been “strong enough”.
