How Trump cost Starmer his premiership

Andy Burnham must adapt to the end of the Special Relationship

Today on Arguably, Ben Judah, who was a Foreign Office special adviser from 2024-25, writes on the lessons for the next prime minister from Donald Trump’s treatment of Keir Starmer.

(Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock)

We’ve heard a lot about what Keir Starmer got wrong. What we’ve heard less often is that he simply got unlucky. I am firmly of the belief that Donald Trump’s election as US president 19 months ago played a major role in derailing his premiership.

Trump’s return clearly helped fuel support for right-wing populism in the UK. Reform was polling around 19 per cent at the time of the US election in November 2024. By the time of Trump’s inauguration the following January, Farage’s party was at 25 per cent and neck-and-neck with Labour. The interval had been filled with incessant media coverage of Trump and his talking points, creating an aura of invincibility around him as he was embraced by Big Tech.