Starmer says he ‘will not yield’ over Greenland amid tariff threat
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Sir Keir Starmer has said he “will not yield” over his support for Greenland amid Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said: “Threats of tariffs to pressurise allies are completely wrong.
“But I do want to be clear with the House: I will not yield, Britain will not yield on our principles and values about the future of Greenland under threats of tariffs.”
President Donald Trump threatened the UK and other European nations with a 10% tariff on all baseline goods coming to the US over the weekend, unless a deal can be reached on Greenland.
He says he wants to purchase Greenland, a self-autonomous Danish territory, for national security reasons.
But Sir Keir insisted to MPs that he had “made [his] position on Greenland absolutely clear”, and added that he would “engage constructively” with Mr Trump.
“The first of those is that the future of Greenland is for the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone,” he reiterated.
Sir Keir did not explicitly rule out retaliatory tariffs, but appeared to steer away from them, saying he was “working hard to make sure we do not get to that point”.
On Tuesday, the president hit out at the government’s deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, calling it “an act of great stupidity” and saying the agreement is another reason why the US must own Greenland.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch sought to use those criticisms of the Chagos deal to her advantage.
But the prime minister insisted Mr Trump’s comments were only an attempt to force his hand on Greenland.
Sir Keir said: “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 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.”
“[Trump] wants me to yield on my position, and I’m not going to do so.”
The PM also hit out at Ms Badenoch raising the US president’s comments on the deal.
He said: “Now she appears to support words by President Trump to undermine the government’s position on the future of Greenland. She’s chosen naked opportunism over the national interest.”
Challenged by the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, over his handling of the international row, Sir Keir responded that “the relationship with the US matters”.
Sir Ed has called on the government to stand up to Mr Trump and hit back.
The PM said: “It’s foolhardy to think that we should rip up our relationship with the US, abandon Ukraine and so many other things that are important to our defence.”
Leaders trade blows over defections and party rows
During PMQs, the prime minister also sought to wind up the Conservative Party leader about people leaving her party to join Reform UK, following the recent high-profile defections of Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell.
Sir Keir said: “They shout on a Wednesday, and they defect on a Thursday.
“The loudest shouter used to be the former shadow justice secretary [Robert Jenrick]. We should take a note of who’s shouting most loudly this week.”
But Ms Badenoch rose to Sir Keir’s challenge with a smile, saying: “The prime minister wants to talk about defections – let me tell him that when I had someone undermining my party, I sacked him.”
This led to roars of approval in the chamber, which drowned out the Tory leader.
She then continued: “We all know that if he sacked everyone undermining his party, his frontbench would be empty.”
But the prime minister bit back, saying: “She’s claiming strength. She read the guy’s defection letter and then at that point decided to sack him. What was she going to do? Correct the typos and give it back to him?”
Sir Keir added that the Tory leader should have sacked Mr Jenrick earlier for his “comment about faces in Birmingham”.
One member of the shadow cabinet did leave the Conservative Party benches during PMQs.
Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden was ordered to leave the Commons by the Speaker for being too rowdy.
