Donald Trump has weighed in on Sir Keir Starmer’s political future, warning it will be “tough” for him to survive as prime minister after a disastrous few days for his premiership.
The US president claimed Sir Keir, who is facing immense pressure to resign following the fallout of Labour’s disastrous local election results, will struggle to remain in office unless he deals with immigration and energy policy.
Pressed over whether the prime minister can survive, Mr Trump said: “It’s a tough thing unless he can straighten out immigration, where he’s weak, and if he doesn’t start drilling, stop with the windmills all over the place that are causing havoc.”
The damning assessment came a day after Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary in an excoriating letter to Sir Keir, and leadership rival Andy Burnham announced he is seeking a return to the Commons in what is widely expected to pave the way for a challenge to the prime minister.
The mayor of Greater Manchester said he wanted to return to Westminster to “make politics work properly for people” after Josh Simons, the Labour MP for Makerfield, said he would stand down so Mr Burnham can “drive the change our country is crying out for”.
On Thursday evening a Labour Party spokesperson said: “Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, has today given permission to Andy Burnham to stand in the candidate selection process in the forthcoming by-election for the Makerfield constituency.”
Sir Keir has faced growing questions over the direction of his government in recent months, but calls for him to resign have only intensified after Labour suffered a brutal result at last week’s local elections.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One as he returned from his three-day visit to China, the US president – who has had a fractious relationship with the prime minister over the US-Israeli war in Iran and has repeatedly criticised him – renewed his attacks on Sir Keir’s ailing government.
“He’s in trouble for two reasons, energy and immigration. He’s very bad on energy. He should open up the North Sea. He’s got a gold mine and should open up oil in the North Sea, and he doesn’t”, he said.
“You know they buy their oil, a lot of it from Norway. Norway gets it from the North Sea, not as good an area as Scotland and the UK, so they’re paying Norway a fortune for oil that they take out of the North Sea.”
Asked if Sir Keir should quit, Mr Trump responded: “I don’t say that. I think he’s a nice man, actually.
“I didn’t like what he said. ‘We’re going to send ships as soon as you’re finished with the wars’, but we are sort of finished militarily, pretty much,” the president said, in reference to the UK’s pledge to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Tehran since the Middle East conflict began.
The comments mark yet another swipe at the prime minister, whose previously strong relationship with the US president has taken a hit in recent months.
The pair continue to be at odds over the president’s approach to war in the Middle East, with Mr Trump calling Sir Keir “no Winston Churchill” as he expressed anger that countries, including the UK, did not back US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Sir Keir is currently facing a civil war within his party, as he prepares to fight a leadership challenge in the coming weeks, following mounting calls for him to resign after last week’s poor local election results.
After months of speculation, the key challengers to No 10 all appeared to make their first moves.
Mr Streeting’s resignation on Thursday saw him stop short of launching an immediate leadership challenge, instead calling for “the best possible field of candidates” to be lined up first.
He later threw his weight behind Mr Burnham as the candidate in Makerfield, saying Labour needs “our best players on the pitch”.
“The Makerfield by-election will be tough. Votes will need to be earned. Andy is the best chance of winning and that should override factional advantage or propping up one person”, he said.
But, despite backing his rival, the former health secretary’s allies told The Independent that he would stand as a leadership candidate in any contest.
While almost 100 MPs have so far publicly called for Sir Keir’s resignation, they are not united behind a single candidate to replace him.
Mr Streeting will deliver his first speech as a backbencher on Saturday at the Progress conference, with many seeing the address as his first real leadership pitch to voters.
Meanwhile, former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner on Thursday said that her tax affairs had been resolved with HMRC – which have previously been seen as a stumbling block by many to a leadership bid. But she later suggested she may back Mr Burnham instead of running herself.
