The PM took aim at Kemi Badenoch as well.
Keir Starmer has taken aim at Donald Trump for his U-turn on the UK’s Chagos Islands deal.
This week, Trump labelled Britain’s deal to give the Chagos Islands to Mauritius an “act of great stupidity,” just months after his administration had praised it as a “monumental achievement.”
The president’s change of stance came in the wake of the UK and Europe’s opposition to him wanting to take control of Greenland.
At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Starmer was challenged by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch over whether the Chagossians should get to decide their future.
In response, Sir Keir said hit out at Trump, accusing him of wanting to ‘put pressure on me and Britain in relation to my values and principles on the future of Greenland.”
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. He wants me to yield on my position, and I’m not going to do so”.
“Given that that was his express purpose, I’m surprised the leader of the opposition has jumped on the bandwagon,” he added.
Starmer said he believed Badenoch had “supported the government’s position on the future of Greenland,” but she was now supporting words by Trump to “undermine the government’s position.”
He slammed Badenoch for choosing “naked opportunism over the national interest.”
It comes as the US accused the UK and Sir Keir Starmer of “letting us down” over the Chagos Islands.
Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said no further trade talks were scheduled between as relations between the two nations with the ‘special relationship’ continue to deteriorate.
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