Sir Keir Starmer‘s hopes of restoring the relationship between Britain and the European Union after Brexit have taken a knock after the collapse of key ally’s government– just hours after Donald Trump secured a second presidential term.
Europe’s largest economy Germany is now reeling after the ruling coalition fell in the wake of Olaf Scholz’s decision to sack his finance minister.
Sir Keir had developed a close working relation with the German chancellor since his election victory and just last week, the prime minister secured the first major success of his plans for a Brexit reset with a landmark defence deal between the two countries.
A general election is now expected in Germany early next year, with the unpopular Mr Scholz widely expected to lose.
The German government’s collapse came after Sir Keir was urged to step up his plans for a great reset in relations with Europe in the wake of Mr Trump’s election victory.
Warning the result was a dark day for mankind, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said that stronger trade and defence cooperation across Europe would “help protect ourselves from the damage Trump will do” now the world’s largest economy and its most powerful military “will be led by a dangerous, destructive demagogue”.
Peter Altmaier, former chief of staff to Angela Merkel, also told the BBC Today programme that UK/ French co-operation “will have to be reinforced and enhanced” in the wake of Trump’s election and the collapse of the Germany government.
Sir Keir offered Mr Trump his “hearty” congratulations on his win in a telephone call late on Wednesday.
Just hours earlier he had been forced to publicly support his foreign secretary David Lammy, who in the past called Mr Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath”.
Mr Lammy will remain in his post until the next election, Downing Street said on Wednesday just hours after Mr Trump’s victory was secured.
The vote of confidence came after the prime minister was asked to apologise for his frontbencher’s attack in an article, written when he was a backbench MP in 2018.
Mr Starmer could also lose another key Brexit ally within weeks, as the Irish prime minister also announced plans for an imminent general election. However, Simon Harris is widely expected to remain in post, with a change of coalition partner.
Sir Keir will meet other European leaders at a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) in the Hungarian capital Budapest on Thursday, as world leaders attempt to grapple with the rewriting of the political map.
The rapid realignment of global politics has prompted questions for the future of Sir Keir’s brand of centre-left politics.
Asked if it was under threat following the Democrats loss in the US and the collapse of Scholz’s government, Labour frontbencher Pat McFadden told LBC: “I don’t want to give anybody any lectures. I know what it’s like to be on the losing end of an election, as the Democrats were the other night, and I know what it’s like to be on the winning end, and so what my focus is, rather than lecturing others, is remembering what we did to change the Labour Party.”