Real life probably shouldn’t look too much like Love Actually. In the 2003 film, when the British prime minister, played by Hugh Grant, publicly tears into the US president for his boorish behaviour towards a No 10 staffer, it’s a movie moment to cheer on
In reality, blowing up a crucial economic and security alliance is not something to be done on a whim, however tempting it is. Keir Starmer has evidently been thoroughly aware of that as he’s managed the UK’s relationship with Donald Trump since the latter’s return to the Oval Office.
Time and again, Starmer has shrugged off insulting and outrageous behaviour from the President – including directed specifically at the UK – with the rationale that doing so is in the UK’s best interest. The UK needs the Nato alliance, that reasoning goes. We need the US to keep selling arms to Ukraine, even if they will no longer fund it. We need to try to minimise the damage of tariffs.
Within months, Trump has managed to damage relations with the UK and Europe sufficiently that Starmer and his fellow European leaders have effectively been treating the US relationship as one of damage limitation, rather than strategic partnership, mutual benefit, or even basic friendship. There is very little fellow feeling left.
The question is whether any of this is actually delivering. Last year, Starmer granted Trump the unprecedented honour of a second State Visit to the UK, which saw the President entertained at a lavish banquet in Windsor Castle. Trump, a lover of pomp and ceremony, we were told, would give the UK a better trade deal in exchange for this VIP treatment.
This didn’t survive contact with reality. The deal the UK struck never got fully confirmed, and was no better than that offered to several other nations that hadn’t gone on a similar charm offensive. Despite the lack of payoff, though, the UK government seems addicted to the same tactic.
On Tuesday, it was confirmed that King Charles would be undertaking a state visit to the USA, as part of celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Given that declaration was a celebration of casting off the yoke of a British monarch, attending that party was always going to be something of an embarrassing affair for a King – but Trump has all but ensured it will be an utter humiliation.
The same day the UK agreed to attend the party, both Trump and his Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, made a point of singling out and embarrassing the UK on the world stage, making a point of claiming that Britain had a responsibility to reopen the Strait of Hormuz – closed at present for the first time in its history thanks to a war the US launched.
Trump’s Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, mocked Britain in a press conference on Tuesday (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/ AP)A charm offensive is all well and good when it works, but at present the UK is all charm and the US is relentlessly offensive. That suggests it might be time for the British Government to reassess its approach.
In theory, the USA is still essential for European security. In practice, that alliance looks so fragile as to have all but disintegrated already. Nato treaties only mean anything if we genuinely believe the US President will honour them.
While in strict legal terms, a Trump withdrawal from Nato would need congressional approval and an extended withdrawal period, in practice if Trump signals strongly enough he doesn’t care about Nato, it’s effectively gone already. At the same time, it is a stated strategic goal of the USA to replace European governments with far-right parties closer to its own ideological alignment.
Trump says on almost a daily basis that he doesn’t care about the consequences to the UK and Europe of his conflict with Iran. He says he is willing to withdraw, declaring victory, in such a way that leaves Iran in de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz, leaving Europe to tackle that. He has lifted sanctions on Russian oil as his actions have sent its price skyrocketing, boosting Moscow’s coffers and thus its war efforts against Ukraine. He hasn’t said a positive word about Nato in months.
There is a point when putting a brave face on things turns into denial. Trump’s America might not be an enemy of the UK or Europe, but it’s certainly no longer an ally in any meaningful sense of the word. Any time spent not acknowledging that new reality is time that we’re wasting – and we don’t have the luxury of doing that.
Perhaps a Love, Actually moment isn’t the right response, even if voters would probably like it – there is certainly very little appetite left for seeing Starmer play nice-nice with Trump.
But even if Starmer doesn’t intend to deliver a cinematic moment, he should signal he’s in touch with the new reality. The UK needs to prepare for a world in which the US is no longer its ally – because that’s the world we’ve been living in for months already.
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