EXCLUSIVEInside British Prime Minister Keir Starmers push to meet Trump and Harris to carve out the future of the special relationship
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pushed to meet Kamala Harris and Donald Trump during his short visit to the United States but their campaign schedules interfered.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pushed to meet Kamala Harris and Donald Trump during his short visit to the United States but their campaign schedules interfered.
The PM is keen to meet both candidates if schedules align in the future, a British official told DailyMail.com.
Starmer is eager to sit down with whoever will be President Joe Bidens successor amid questions about what the special relationship between the two countries will look like after Novembers election.
Harris is campaigning in Pennsylvania on Friday when Starmer is scheduled to be at the White House to meet with Biden. Trump is on the West Coast, fundraising in California and then holding a rally in Las Vegas.
Britains Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives in the United States
Starmer is only on the ground in Washington for 24 hours. He heads back to the UK on Friday night.
He is expected to come back to the U.S. the week of September 23rd for the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting known as UNGA.
There is talk about him and Harris meeting during that trip if the schedules align with Starmer making a quick side trip to D.C.
There are no current plans for the VP to travel to New York to participate in the UN General Assembly. As she has done in past years, it is possible she meets with foreign leaders in DC during this week. We don’t have any meetings to announce, an official with Harris told DailyMail.com.
Trumps campaign did respond to request for comment.
The former president did meet with then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in April at Mar-a-Lago. But Cameron lost his position when conservatives lost power.
Starmer has been making an effort to shore up relations with the United States as uncertainty grows around the outcome of the November election, the fate of the Ukraine and if there will be a ceasefire in the Middle East.
The United States has been a major player in both conflicts but there is uncertainty over what Bidens successor will do as concerns grow in America over the amount of U.S. dollars going to the Ukraine and about the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.
His quick trip to Washington is his second meeting with Biden since he became PM in July. He and Biden also met on the margins of the NATO summit in Washington this summer.
That meeting took place one week after Starmer’s election and two weeks before Biden would exit the presidential race.
Starmer requested this second face-to-face with Biden, sources told CNN, in a bid to strengthen ties.
Not being able to carve out a meeting with the next leader of the free world could be a setback to Starmers goals but officials continue to push for sit downs.
The U.S. and UK have a special relationship going back to World War II. Biden and Starmer are looking to publicly recommit to that decades-old bond between their two nations.
Ideologically, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is closer to Kamala Harris
Donald Trump remains a wildcard when it comes to Ukraine and the Middle East
Starmer, ideologically, is closer to Harris.
In fact, some of the advisers who helped Labor win an historic victory in the UK this summer came to the U.S. to advise the Democratic nominee.
They urged Democrats to focus on winning back working-class voters who had drifted to the right in recent years, Politico reported.
When Biden and Starmer sit down for their two-hour meeting, the war in the Ukraine will top the agenda.
While Harris is expected to follow a similar path to Biden if she wins the November election, Trump remains a wildcard.
Its also uncertain how the former president would handle the war in the Middle East.
