Starmer says he stands with Denmark in Greenland row

Former attorney general Dominic Grieve described the US president as 'a serious and significant danger to world peace'

- DAVID MADDOX

Sir Keir Starmer has defied Donald Trump over the US president's expansionist plans to snatch Greenland from Denmark, publicly backing the Danish prime minister after she demanded that the US stop threatening to take over the territory.

Sir Keir made the unusual decision to stand against Mr Trump after the president dramatically threatened to annex Greenland. But the prime minister has refused to condemn the decision to remove Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro over the weekend, despite warnings from legal experts that his capture on Saturday was a breach of international law.

Jonathan Sumption, a former justice of the UK Supreme Court, described the move as “plainly illegal”, while former attorney general Dominic Grieve said: “We're living with a completely maverick and amoral US president who is a serious and significant danger to world peace.”

The prime minister, speaking to reporters yesterday, said that his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen was “right” to dispute the US president’s asserted claim to Greenland, and stated that he “stands with” Denmark on the issue.

Sir Keir’s signal of solidarity with Nato ally Denmark comes after Mr Trump suggested over the weekend that Venezuela may not be the last country to be subject to American intervention, after the US military carried out a series of airstrikes on Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. He has also previously made territorial claims about another Nato ally, Canada.

Hinting at his expansionist agenda following the operation in Venezuela, Mr Trump told the magazine