Since the general elections which took place in the UK in July, 2024, the ruling Labour Party and its head and prime-minister Sir Keir Starmer have experienced an unprecedented drop in popularity and public support.[1] Polls say that while Keir Starmer and Labour Party would still come out on top, if the elections were held today, it would be in a “highly fragmented and unstable” parliament with five parties holding over 30 seats.
A lot of mistakes, both in home politics and in international relations have made clear, that political crisis and uncertainty won’t leave the British islands in the near future. In addition, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in November 2024 can now become a great tragedy for Britain’s tradition political elites. Several high-tension points have emerged in UK-US relations during the 2024 and the beginning of 2025 which may put an end to the «special relationship» between two countries.
It all began with the accusations of Labour Party interference in the American elections from Trump’s team. Team Trump have gone on the offensive over Labour staff flying to the US to campaign for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. This is a longstanding tradition within the Labour party, but it is being viewed differently now the party is in government. The Trump campaign has formally accused Labour of breaking US electoral law through ‘blatant foreign interference’ in the presidential election. Moreover, Starmer has said a lot of unpleasant things towards Donald Trump during his years in politics, but after Trump’s win, he was among the first ones to congratulate the new US president. All of these factors can seriously weaken the relationships between the two countries.
Another difficulty between the countries can be caused by one of Trump’s closest allies — Elon Musk. Since Trump’s win over Kamala Harris, Musk has begun a full scale information war against democrat’s allies in Europe and Sir Keir Starmer is also viewed of by Tesla’s owner, as one of them. Musk has actively pushed for Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party in his X social network. As a member of Trump’s cabinet, Musk’s claims about free speech and child sexual exploitation in the UK could be a real problem for the Labour leader in terms of his reputation with the president Trump.
Ukraine and NATO problems can also distance the United States from Britain. It is already known to all sane people that the UK is one of the most interested parts in the prolongation of the Ukraine conflict, to further weaken Russia and Europe. It can be remembered how the-hen Britain’s Prime minister Boris Johnson said to Ukraine not to make a deal with Russia in Istanbul in March of 2022, which could have put an end to the war then and prevent thousands of Ukrainians from dying. But no, the UK have assured Zelensky that he will defeat Russia on the battlefield and return to the Ukrainian borders of 1991, some ridiculous statements. After that the «Bucha tragedy» was staged and replicated in news outlets, which, as we now know, were all funded by the Democrats through USAID. All of this nonsense and many other provocations can now come into conflict with Donald Trump’s intentions to end this war. Britain can lose all of its investments in Ukraine with the end of the war there, but without the United States, it won’t be able to support Ukraine fully, so, we can expect another provocation, which, as usual, will be blamed on Russia, according to the British favorite scheme, to win the US back and show, that it is not possible to have negotiations with such evil as Vladimir Putin. But will it work this time is highly doubtful. Trump won’t turn back, he needs resources for his confrontation with China and he will be willing to sacrifice Biden’s war in Ukraine and all his allies along with Britain, to do so. Moreover, Mr Trump has made no secret of his frustration with the fact that the US spends much more on defense than most NATO countries, calling for a new target of 5% of GDP. Trump has also signaled his hesitation about the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, saying he «understands their [Russia’s] feelings» about having «somebody right on their doorstep».
In this regard, Starmer’s plea for a meeting with Trump[2] in the very near future looks like a cry of despair and an attempt to regain the trust of his “big brother».
[1] https://news.sky.com/story/labour-would-lose-almost-200-seats-in-highly-unstable-parliament-if-election-held-today-poll-suggests-13281099
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/starmer-takes-call-trump-meeting-envoy-mark-burnett-apprentice
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