Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed US President Donald Trump dropping his tariff threat to European opponents of his plan to annex Greenland.
“Now we can start hard yards and finding a way forward on security in the Arctic,” said the prime minister.
Trump caused jitters across the western world when he ramped up calls for the US to take control of Greenland, a Danish territory in the Arctic, on national security grounds and threatened to impose 10% import taxes on eight countries including the UK.
But the US president has now abandoned talk of a trade war after meeting Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte at Davos, saying the pair had come to an agreement over a potential deal on Arctic security.
Speaking on a visit to Hertfordshire on Thursday, Sir Keir said “it is a good thing” that on Wednesday “the threat of tariffs against the United Kingdom was lifted”.
“Now we can start hard yards and finding a way forward on security in the Arctic, which may seem a long way away, pretty remote, but actually it does matter to all of us in terms of the safety and security of our country,” he said.
“And we’ve got through the last few days with a mix of British pragmatism, common sense, but also that British sense of sticking to our values and our principles.
“But now, as I say, the hard yards of actually finding a better way for security for our country, for Europe and across the globe.”
The potential deal was reached when Trump met Rutte on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the US president suggested the framework could involve mineral rights.
Details are currently sparse, but Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Radio 4’s Today programme she was “not aware of any discussions at all” on Greenland’s vast – and largely untapped – reserves of rare earth minerals, many of which are crucial for technologies including mobile phones and electric vehicles.
Instead, she said the agreement was around an “Arctic sentry” allowing Nato countries to work together on a “shared threat” with “different Arctic countries coming together, supported by other Nato countries”.
Cooper said the climbdown was due to the UK’s “determined diplomacy” and “a very co-ordinated approach across allies”.
This was despite a volley of social media posts by Trump aimed at the UK, including one where he branded the agreement to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands an “act of great stupidity”, despite having previously welcomed the deal as a “monumental achievement”.
Those plans give the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while leasing back a key UK-US military base, following legal advice that otherwise the UK riosked losing the asset entirely.
The prime minister came under fire at PMQs on Wednesday for his focus on a calm response to such threats rather than ramping up rhetoric around retaliation, with Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey insisting the UK must stand up to “bullies”.
Sir Keir responded by making his most open statement of opposition to the US president yet, telling MPs that he would “not yield” in his stance over Greenland and vowed to stand up for British principles.
Trump changing his stance on the UK’s Chagos Islands deal was done with “the express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain” over the Government’s position on Greenland, Sir Keir told the Commons.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch backed the PM’s stance on Greenland but criticised him for “giving away territory we own and paying £35bn for the privilege,” adding that the money should instead go towards the armed forces.
Asked about the Chagos deal, Cooper said the figure was wrong and actually equated to “0.2% of the defence budget”, adding opposition leaders were “swallowing some of the propaganda” and undermining the national interest.
She added that Trump used the Chagos deal as a way of putting pressure on the UK over Greenland in recent days, calling it shameful that the Conservatives “jumped on that bandwagon”.