Starmer: We do get on and talk a lot. Genuinely get on

The prime minister explains his surprising chemistry with Donald Trump and how it helped to secure a new trade deal

- DAVID MADDOX

Sir Keir Starmer has revealed how his special relationship with Donald Trump helped secure a historic trade deal between the UK and US.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, the prime minister lifted the lid on how nurturing their friendship won the prize, proving critics wrong about his approach to dealing with a tricky opponent.

Sir Keir said the “grown-ups” had set aside their huge political differences to reach a deal, and told how a last-minute telephone call from Mr Trump on Wednesday night finally secured a deal after weeks of negotiations by both sides.

A joint news conference the next day, in which the two leaders were on first name terms, gave the appearance of the warmest relationship between a prime minister and president since Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

It marks an extraordinary turnaround for a Labour leader whose foreign secretary David Lammy once referred to the president as a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.

“As [Trump] would say, and we discuss this, we come from different political backgrounds, but we get on genuinely, get on and talk quite a lot,” the prime minister said.

In a pointed remark about the failures of his Tory predecessors in securing a trade deal, Sir Keir noted: “We have two leaders who are capable of getting on and, as [Trump] said yesterday, many people have talked about doing a UK-US deal and it's Donald Trump and Keir Starmer who have gone and done it." Getting it done included taking a call from the president just before half-time in the Champions League semi-final second leg as Sir Keir's beloved Arsenal were trailing 1-0 against Paris Saint-Germain.