Keir Starmer and his team recognised the potential for a second Donald Trump term in the White House long before the new president-elect won the election this week.
It is why for months the Prime Minister has refused to be drawn into rows about Trump’s previous controversial comments or his thoughts on women, abortion or foreign affairs.
The team around Starmer believe both men are ultimately pragmatists who will find ways to work together so long as both the UK and the US come out as winners. But it will be in those areas where the partners do not see eye to eye where the potential for conflict is greatest.
Step forward David Lammy. The Foreign Secretary will be responsible for holding the UK line in a number of near-impossible to navigate scenarios, from the future of Ukraine to the war in the Middle East.
Knowing this, the team around Lammy also started planning before the election, by trumpeting his credentials as a Christian who has written a book similar to JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy about the left-behind voters who carried Trump in to the White House.
Lammy first met Vance before he was picked as Trump’s running mate and since then he has repeatedly talked up the relationship between the pair. Insiders say Lammy’s ability to understand how Americans operate – much more flamboyantly and with a lot more back-slapping than the politics conducted in dusty........