Sir Keir Starmer to give No 10 speech over Greenland row
The Prime Minister will take to the Downing Street rostrum this morning after another extraordinary weekend of diplomatic turmoil caused by US President Donald Trump.
Sir Keir Starmer knows he will expect people and businesses in the UK to respond, in front of the cameras, to the prospect of the UK and its European allies being hit by further US tariffs.
It’s the latest twist in the debate over Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory that Trump wants to seize.
Trump said he would impose new taxes on eight US allies (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK) on February 1 if they continue to oppose the proposed takeover of Greenland.
A long-time observer of Western diplomacy told me: “This is extraordinary. We haven’t seen anything like this in 80 years.”
“This is pure political pressure against NATO allies for an attempt to seize a piece of territory; it is astonishing.”
Expect Sir Keir to reiterate his belief that imposing tariffs would be a mistake and make clear that this is something he explained directly to Trump on the phone on Sunday.
Downing Street said Sir Keir spoke to the Danish prime minister, the president of the European Commission and the NATO secretary general before calling Trump on Sunday.
Labor insiders recognize that this is another burst of turbulence they could clearly do without, and argue that the UK’s capacity to be central to these diplomatic talks depends on their “reset” with the EU and a strong relationship with the Trump administration despite obvious political differences.
But when asked what might happen next, or what the European allies’ next move might be, some shrug their shoulders. This is perhaps understandable; These are unprecedented developments, and the options available to European powers are limited.
Some worry that any countermeasures from European countries could deepen the deterioration in relations with Washington and harm Europe more than the United States.
The question now is whether a face-to-face meeting with Trump, perhaps with the participation of a group of European leaders, would make a difference. The President will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos In Switzerland this week.
Meanwhile, Downing Street and the Foreign Office continue to make calls as they explore their options on how to respond.
They also regret that the White House’s imposition of unprecedented diplomatic G-forces on would-be allies means the prime minister’s desire to focus on cost-of-living concerns has been repressed.
There have been three Mondays so far in 2026, and on two of them Sir Keir has planned trips outside London to talk about what the government is doing to help people facing mounting bills.
Two weeks ago, he took reporters, including me, to a community center in Reading to do just that, but ended up facing endless questions about Venezuela and Greenland.
A similar trip was planned today, but was canceled due to events over the weekend.
Sir Keir will seek to argue at the press conference that international and domestic issues are inseparable and that being actively involved on the international stage and being taken seriously helps resolve many of the domestic concerns of millions of voters.
Just before the latest tremors in Greenland, the prime minister and foreign secretary attended an event just down Downing Street; This event would serve to underline the magnitude of what was to come.
At lunchtime on Saturday, people gathered at the birthplace of the United Nations in Westminster to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its founding after the Second World War.
In 1946, the first meeting of the UN General Assembly took place in London, just four months after the end of the war.
This marked the beginning of a number of international organizations that emerged in the post-war years, most notably the defense alliance NATO, which was formed four years later in 1949.
Shortly after Secretary of State Yvette Cooper and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had lunch, a metaphor for our times began to emerge: yet another upheaval of Western diplomatic convention, thanks to a social media post by the US president.
Once again, Trump was tearing apart international norms and conventions that organizations like the UN and NATO had adopted years ago.
