Brian WheelerPolitical reporter
Sir Keir Starmer has said he “will not yield” to pressure from Donald Trump over the future of Greenland, after the US president attacked the UK’s Chagos Islands deal.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said the US president had criticised the Chagos deal after previously saying he supported it “for the express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain in relation to my values and principles on the future of Greenland”.
On Tuesday, Trump called the UK’s deal to give the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back a key military base an “act of great stupidity”.
He has threatened to impose tariffs on European countries who oppose his demand to take control of Greenland.
Sir Keir told MPs “the future of Greenland is for the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone” – and said he would be hosting the Danish premier Mette Frederiksen in Downing Street on Thursday.
“President Trump deployed words on Chagos yesterday that were different to his previous words of welcome and support when I met him in the White House,” he said.
“He deployed those words yesterday for the express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain in relation to my values and principles on the future of Greenland.”
The PM added: “He wants me to yield on my position, and I’m not going to do so.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she supported the PM’s position on Greenland – but agreed with Trump on the “stupidity” of the Chagos Islands deal.
“We didn’t need President Trump to tell us that, we’ve been saying this for 12 months,” she told Sir Keir.
She urged the PM to “scrap this terrible deal and put the money into our armed forces”.
Later in the session, Labour MP Steve Witherden urged Sir Keir to “close ranks with our European allies and commit to retaliatory tariffs” against the US over Greenland.
“The thug in the White House has shown that he doesn’t listen to grovelling or sycophancy,” he said.
“He’ll continue to harm British interests no matter how compliant we are and, like all bullies, he will always find the weakest link.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey accused Trump of “increasingly acting like a crime boss running a protection racket” and urged the PM to join French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in standing up more strongly to the US president.
Trump has threatened to impose 10% tariffs from 1 February on European countries including the UK unless they agree to his purchase of Greenland – but he has ruled out the use of military force to seize the territory.
The US president told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that. I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force, I won’t use force.”
Also speaking at Davos, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the UK would not be “buffeted around” by the threat of tariffs.
The chancellor said the UK had an economic plan which would “get us through challenging times” and that a trade deal with the US would not be “undone”.
Downing Street has refused to say that the US no longer supports the UK’s Chagos Islands deal, telling journalists “our Five Eyes allies support it”, a reference to the intelligence sharing alliance between the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.
The UK signed the £3.4bn ($4.6bn) agreement in May, under which it would retain control of a UK-US military base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia.
Ministers say the deal is necessary to provide a firm legal basis for the operation of the strategically important Diego Garcia facility.
But legislation to finalise it is currently caught in a wrangle between the Lords and the Commons.
On Tuesday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ Nato ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital US military base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.
“There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness.”
He highlighted the decision as a reason for his continued pursuit of Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark.
“The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of national security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired.”
Ahead of Trump’s arrival at Davos, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a press conference the UK was “letting us down” over the Chagos deal.
“President Trump has made it clear that we will not outsource our national security or our hemispheric security to any other countries.
“Our partner, the UK, is letting us down with the base on Diego Garcia, which we had shared together for many, many years, and they want to turn it over to Mauritius.”
He also said there were “glitches” in the UK-US trade deal and that no more trade talks were scheduled between the two countries.