David Lammy: Starmer warned UK ‘will never be in Trump’s circle of trust’ | Politics | News

David Lammy is now “a major problem” for Sir Keir Starmer despite the Foreign Secretary’s attempts to downplay past historical criticisms of US President-Elect Donald Trump, a US-based Brexiteer and former MP has said.

And Douglas Carswell believes it is only a matter of time before Mr Lammy is axed from his job, warning Britain will never be inside what he called Mr Trump’s “circle of trust” as long as the Labour MP for Tottenham remains in his post.

Mr Lammy has faced significant scrutiny since the Republican candidate’s victory in last week’s election over remarks he made about the billionaire during the course of his first Presidential term, when he variously branded Mr Trump a “serial liar”, “a cheat”, “a sociopath” and even “a Nazi”.

Mr Carswell, who served as MP for Clacton, the seat currently held by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, from 2010 to 2017, and who is now president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, told Express.co.uk: “It’s a major problem, and if they can’t see it as being a major problem, they’re magnifying the problem even more.

“He’s clearly low-calibre, he’s clearly got a history of making rash and foolish comments on Twitter, not just about, not just about Donald Trump, but about lots of international situations.

“The idea that you would put the clown Lammy in that position clearly means that you’ve either not thought it through, or you’re not expecting Trump to get in.

Mr Carswell continued: “What they’ve done is convince themselves that because the rather ineffective British ambassador in Washington managed to get a bit of face time between Lammy and JD Vance, and the fact that they managed to go and have dinner in Mar a Lago, this is all okay.

“But they clearly don’t understand how Trump works.

“Trump is very much does things on the basis of personal relations.

“Someone who’s never met him, who has never made any effort to understand him, but who tweets that he’s a neo-Nazi is never, ever going be in Trump’s circle of trust.

“And the British Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister need to be inside the circle of trust of the American president.

“That’s rule number one in foreign policy, and it’s been rule number one since the Suez Crisis – it is always in Britain’s interests to have our leaders inside that circle of trust.”

Mr Carswell claimed it was also a cardinal failure of what he called “the men in gray suits in the Foreign Office”, that they had allowed, “in effect, a student politician” to be handed the job of foreign secretary.

He added: “The only real issue is how long it is before Lammy is removed.”

Since the election on November 5, Mr Lammy has sought to manage diplomatic ties by downplaying his past comments.

He dismissed the controversy, calling his previous remarks “old news” and suggesting that most politicians had critical views on Mr Trump during his first term.

However, he has refrained from formally retracting his statements, leading some observers, like former US Ambassador Woody Johnson, to note that they could still affect US-UK relations despite Mr Lammy’s recent outreach to American conservatives and Trump allies.

Express.co.uk has contacted Mr Lammy’s representatives for comment.