Keir Starmer has risked stoking tensions with Donald Trump by swiping at his ‘bad faith’ threat to abandon Nato members who do not pay their way.
The Labour leader said the military alliance must deepen cooperation to ensure security rather than ‘divide and threaten’.
The thinly-veiled rebuke will fuel questions about how Sir Keir would work with Mr Trump should they both succeed in winning crunch elections later this year.
Keir Starmer has risked stoking tensions with Donald Trump by swiping at his ‘bad faith’ threat to abandon Nato members who do not pay their way
The thinly-veiled rebuke will fuel questions about how Sir Keir would work with Mr Trump (pictured) should they both succeed in winning crunch elections later this year
On the campaign trail last weekend, Mr Trump caused a storm when he took aim at NATO states that do not meet defence spending commitments.
‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent? No, I would not protect you,’ he said.
He added that Russia could do ‘whatever the hell they want’ to members who failed to meet their promised criteria.
‘In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills,’ he said.
The remark drew immediate fury from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who accused Mr Trump of endangering allies.
‘Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.’
Volodymyr Zelensky challenged Mr Trump to come to see the raging war against Russia in Ukraine.
Under NATO’s mutual defence clause, Article 5 of its founding treaty, all allies commit to help any member who comes under attack.
The article has only ever been activated once, by the US in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Sir Keir attended the Munich security conference this weekend, alongside dozens of premiers and foreign ministers – although Rishi Sunak did not go this year.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Sir Keir said: ‘I made clear to leaders that a Britain I lead will always stand up for our allies, even if others threaten not to.’
The Labour leader added that to deal with future threats ‘we must rebuild, renew, and resource, not divide and threaten’.
Volodymyr Zelensky challenged Mr Trump to come to see the raging war against Russia in Ukraine
‘Bad faith politics risks our security,’ he said.
Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Sir Keir stressed that he would work with whomever wins the US presidential election in November.
‘One of the issues that everybody here in the Munich Security Conference is discussing is what the various elections across the globe will mean for security in the future,’ he said.
‘And I think there is a feeling that the challenge will enhance as we go forward, and that Europe needs to stand together and talk about the defence – not just now but for the future.
‘Now, obviously, as you would expect, if we’re elected into government, we will deal with whoever the American people choose to be their president. But of course, we redouble our commitment to Nato.’
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy – who previously described Mr Trump as a ‘woman-hating neo-Nazi sympathiser’ – said he would work with ‘whomever is in the White House’.
He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: ‘The truth is you’ll be hard pressed to find anybody who was in Parliament on any side, who hasn’t had views on some of the rhetoric that Donald Trump has used in the past.
‘Indeed, David Cameron described him as misogynistic and xenophobic in his own book.
‘We will work with whomever is in the White House, it doesn’t matter, frankly, who is the incumbent of Number 10 or the White House, we are the closest allies.
‘It’s a prevailing and strong partnership, it will remain that. We should not get too carried away with the rhetoric that of course we’ll all hear over the next few months in an election cycle.’