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Sir Keir Starmer has said he will meet Donald Trump, but not vice-president Kamala Harris, during his trip to the US.
The UK prime minister is due to meet the Republican presidential candidate at Trump Tower on Thursday evening.
Starmer travelled to New York this week to attend the UN General Assembly, and has also scheduled meetings with senior executives such as Larry Fink of Blackstone and Brad Smith of Microsoft.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Thursday, the prime minister confirmed his meeting with former President Trump and stressed his wish also to meet the Democratic presidential candidate Harris.
“I want to meet both candidates. We’ve now got the opportunity to meet Trump, which is good. Obviously, I still want to speak to Harris as well but, you know, the usual diary challenges [have occurred],” he said.
Starmer said his talks with Trump were about trying to “establish a relationship between the two of us”.
He added: “I’m a great believer in personal relations on the international stage. I think it really matters that you know who your counterpart is in any given country, and know them personally, get to know them face to face.”
The UK embassy has “good relations with both camps and has had for a long time”, Starmer said, stressing his meeting was “not the sort of start of something, it’s the continuation”.
Attitudes towards Trump in the Labour party have often been deeply hostile. A dozen members of Starmer’s cabinet have criticised Trump in the past, describing him as a “sociopath”, an “absolute moron” and “a racist, misogynistic, self-confessed groper”.
Starmer said it was up to the US electorate to decide who their next leader will be and insisted “we will work with whoever is president”.
The so-called special relationship between London and Washington is “probably as strong now as it’s ever been, in relation to the Middle East and Ukraine”, the prime minister said.
The meeting is set to take place after Starmer made his first address to the UN general assembly, in which he said that under his leadership, the UK would move “from the paternalism of the past towards partnership for the future”.
He said this would involve Britain “listening a lot more — speaking a bit less”, while still continuing to offer “game-changing British expertise and working together in a spirit of equal respect”.
Starmer also reiterated UK calls for reform of the UN Security Council, insisting that Brazil, India, Japan and Germany should become permanent members, with further seats for elected members and permanent representation from Africa.
Calling for reform of the international financial system to better support developing nations, he also announced the creation of a new facility within British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution.
He said it would “work with the City of London to mobilise billions in pension and insurance funds to invest in boosting development and fighting climate change”.
Starmer warned that increasing polarisation, impunity and instability had fuelled his fear that “a sense of fatalism has taken hold”. He added: “Well, our task is to say: No. We won’t accept this slide into greater and greater conflict, instability and injustice.”