Ed Davey has urged Keir Starmer to “Trump-proof” the UK by urgently seeking closer European cooperation over military aid for Ukraine and economic ties, after the US president-elect’s threats about security and trade wars.
The Liberal Democrat leader, whose party is the third biggest in the House of Commons, argued that while the UK government should seek to work with a Donald Trump administration, it should also be as prepared as possible if he were to abandon Ukraine or impose sweeping tariffs.
“Yes, we can work with him,” Davey said. “Of course we should, and it may well be that we can, but it would be irresponsible not to take the measures in a diplomatic way, defensive way, that would make our national security and our economy Trump-proof.
“I think millions of people in the UK and elsewhere are just really worried and quite scared. And they’re particularly scared about what it’s going to mean for our security and our economy.”
Trump’s election should be “a wake-up call for the government on Ukraine”, said Davey, who was spending part of Friday at a charity in Surrey that provides aid packages for Ukrainian families.
He said Starmer should push for an immediate European conference on how the continent could fill the gap in defence assistance if, as Trump and his team have hinted, he pulls US support, or tries to force Ukraine into accepting an end to the conflict that would greatly strengthen Russia.
“We can’t simply abandon Ukraine to Putin just because Trump’s in power,” Davey said. “We’ve been playing a critical role, and I think we could play an even more critical role by working with European friends, bringing together European countries so we can increase the aid to Ukraine, and pay for that by seizing Russian assets properly. We’ve been pushing for that for some time.
“Now is the absolute the moment to do it so Europe can fill the gap. But we have got to do it quickly.”
On closer economic cooperation with the EU, Davey said Starmer should move swiftly to fix “the broken trading relationship left in tatters by the Conservatives”, including by considering demands from Brussels such as a mutual youth mobility scheme.
“With the worry of tariffs and trade wars, this couldn’t be more urgent for our economy,” he said. “We don’t want a trade war. We need to try and argue him out of that idea, argue against tariffs, and we need to try to persuade him to stand by Ukraine with us. But, but we also need to make our country Trump-proof. We can’t just do whatever he says.”
While Starmer and leading Conservatives congratulated Trump on his election, with no mention of his criminal record, repeated falsehoods, misogyny and threats to use the presidency to target opponents, Davey called the result “a dark, dark day for people around the globe”.
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This did not mean, he said, that the UK government could not or should not try to work as best they could with the new US administration.
“I get the need for pragmatism, and I want the government to put the national interest first in dealing with President Trump. That means being really strong in our diplomacy to argue for the positions that the country takes on security and trade,” he said.
“You won’t be surprised to know that the leader of the Liberal Democrats would say that we don’t share Trump’s values on rule of law, democracy and human rights. We don’t share his values, but we recognise he is the president of the United States.
“He has just been elected, and any government has to work with him. But you can’t be starry-eyed, and you have to be honest, and say where we just disagree.”