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Sir Keir Starmer said that Joe Biden “deserves credit” for the success of the Nato summit and that the president was “on good form” during their recent in-person conversation.
The prime minister was asked about Biden’s mental capability in a new interview with CNN, in which also discussed the possibility of working with Donald Trump and his weekly meetings with King Charles III.
Starmer recently attended the Nato summit in Washington DC alongside other world leaders including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky – his first major outing on the world diplomacy stage.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, he was asked about the continuing concern over Biden’s mental acuity, following a string of serious gaffes and his disastrous debate performance last month.
“I yesterday spent 45 minutes with the President,” he told the news network’s Jake Tapper. “We’d spoken on the phone, as you can imagine, but this was an opportunity to discuss a number of issues.
“We probably went on for the best part of an hour, covered a lot of ground, and he was in good form.
“It was also a really good opportunity for me, as a new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, just literally in week one, to speak to the President about the special relationship, which matters to him, matters to me.”
Starmer also reiterated that he and the UK had “unshakeable support” for Nato and praised the success of the summit. “We’ve had two days of the council now with actually a very successful outcome – president Zelensky [said] ‘this is a success’,” he said
“And so I do think [Biden] deserves credit for that.”
On Thursday evening Biden gave a high-stakes press conference at the Nato summit, shortly after introducing Zelensky as “president Putin.”
Despite getting through his scripted remarks, during questions from reporters he referred to his running mate Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” a slip-up that was pounced on by members of the Trump campaign.
Starmer was also asked about the possibility that come November, he could be made to work with Trump, should he return to the White House. In particular, Tapper highlighted previous comments by foreign secretary David Lammy.
In 2018, Lammy called then-President Trump a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath” and a “profound threat to the international order.” Starmer has also reportedly said that another Trump presidency would not be his “desired outcome.”
“We’re sister parties with the Democrats,” Starmer said. “But I’ve also been really clear that I will work with whoever the American people decide to elect as their president.
“That’s what you would expect, and it is for the American people to decide. They’ll decide later this year, and we will approach it on that basis.”
Starmer once talked about abolishing the British monarchy, however, he told CNN that he now looks forward to his weekly audience with the King.
“It is always valuable to listen to what he has to say. He’s incredibly interested in politics, in the affairs across the United Kingdom, and global affairs,” he said. “They’re a really good frank exchange of views and long may they continue.”
He added: “He’s incredible as well, you know, he’s had a really difficult time with his health this year but he is out there doing his public duty.”
