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Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer “agreed to meet soon” in the course of a 45-minute phone call on Sunday, following a declaration by the US president that he liked the UK prime minister “a lot”.
Starmer is hoping to visit the White House shortly, while Trump, who professed his “respect and affection” for the British royal family, said he may come to the UK on his first foreign visit since re-entering the White House.
The call, described as “a very good conversation” by one person briefed on its contents, has raised hopes in London that Trump could have a constructive relationship with Starmer, in spite of past tensions.
A key feature was what was not discussed: those briefed on the call said there was no mention of potential tariffs on the UK or on Starmer’s choice of Lord Peter Mandelson as his ambassador to Washington.
In spite of criticism in Trump circles of Starmer’s plan to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in return for securing the long term future of the US-UK Diego Garcia military base, that issue was not raised either.
The president’s reticence on all those issues has raised hopes in London that Britain may escape some of the hostile attention that Trump has so far reserved for the likes of Colombia, Mexico and the EU.
An official UK readout of the call said Trump and Starmer discussed, among other things, the situation in the Middle East, trade and the economy, with “the prime minister setting out how we are deregulating to boost growth”.
Starmer’s plan to streamline planning and to curtail judicial reviews also came up. Trump has been involved in his own wrangles with environmentalists over his Aberdeenshire golf resort.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the two leaders on their call “agreed to meet soon and looked forward to further discussions then”.
Speaking before the call, Trump told the BBC on Air Force One he had a good rapport with Starmer. “I get along with him well. I like him a lot,” he said.
“He’s liberal, which is a bit different from me, but I think he’s a very good person and I think he’s done a very good job thus far. I may not agree with his philosophy, but I have a very good relationship with him.”
Trump met Starmer for dinner last September at Trump Tower in New York, in what was seen by both sides as a positive encounter.
The expectation in London is that Trump will not oppose the appointment of Mandelson as Britain’s new ambassador to Washington. The former UK minister is due to start in the post next month.
Allies of Starmer also hope Trump will not block the contentious Chagos Islands deal. “It hasn’t been number one on my list, I’ll be honest with you,” the president told reporters.
Asked where he might go for the first international trip of his second White House term, Trump said: “It could be Saudi Arabia, it could be UK. Traditionally it could be UK.
“Last time I went to Saudi Arabia because they agreed to buy $450bn of US merchandise.”
A meeting with Britain’s royals would appeal to Trump and is seen in Downing Street as a key selling point to the president. No dates have yet been set for the mutual visits.
Starmer this month told the Financial Times in Kyiv he had a “constructive” relationship with Trump, in spite of numerous criticisms of the president by Labour ministers in the past.
Trump railed against the involvement of Labour staffers in Kamala Harris’s unsuccessful presidential campaign. Technology billionaire Elon Musk, named by Trump as a “waste-buster” in his new administration, has called Starmer “tyrannical”.
David Lammy, UK foreign secretary, previously called Trump “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”. Lammy has said the two patched up relations in the Trump Tower dinner in September.
Trump’s positive comments about Starmer contrast with those he has made since his inauguration about countries including Canada and Denmark.
On Sunday Trump imposed tariffs and sanctions on Colombia after it declined entry to US military flights carrying deported migrants.
Jonathan Reynolds, UK trade secretary, has argued that Britain should not be hit by tariffs, given that trade between the UK and US is mainly services-based and is broadly balanced.