EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump has been accused of deliberately humiliating Keir Starmer on the world stage.
Trump intentionally ’embarrassed’ Keir Starmer in Egypt, a former Tory advisor said (Image: AP)
On today’s episode of The Daily Expresso podcast, former Tory advisor Charlie Rowley believes Donald Trump knew exactly what he was doing during a humiliating moment for Sir Keir Starmer – and revealed the motivation behind it.
Donald Trump purposefully humiliated Sir Keir Starmer in front of the world’s media to punish him for “jumping the gun” on the Israel-Gaza conflict by recognising Palestine as a state, Mr Rowley suggested. Reflecting on the awkward moment when the Prime Minister was invited to the stage of a summit in Sharm El Sheikh marking the historic ceasefire in the Middle East but was blocked from speaking, the ex-Conservative advisor compared Sir Keir to a contestant on Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off.
“It reminded me of one of those contestants on Bake Off, that felt as if they had been called up with the best chesecake that had ever been made and sort of was expecting to win a badge for it, then Mary Berry says, ‘You’ve got a soggy bottom’ and you get sent to the back of the class in shame,” he said. “The way he shuffled in and then shuffled out – it wasn’t great to see, but all of that was put on, by the way. I’m pretty sure Trump knew exactly what he was doing.”
Questioned on why the US President would want to “embarrass” the UK’s Prime Minister, Mr Rowley explained: “Well, because Starmer, [Emmanuel] Macron and [Mark] Carney in Canada had all given Palestine a statehood status before, I think, Donald Trump wanted them to.
“So they were sort of pushing their own agenda, jumping the gun, all the while Trump was in control of the negotiations. And I think he was a bit annoyed that all of a sudden all these people have come out of the woodwork to back his plan, back his cause because he’s got the breakthrough.
“I think it was just a sort of way of showing them up a little bit, to say: ‘It’s so lovely to see you. You know, only 20 minutes to spare and they’ve just turned up. Isn’t that amazing?’
“I think it was a backhanded way of saying: ‘You’re welcome to join my team because I’ve done the right thing and you were calling for something else.'”
The excrutiating moment came after Mr Trump reeled off a list of the countries who played a role in neogitating a ceasefire in the long-running conflict, ending with the UK, which he said was among the nations who had travelled to Egypt at a “20-minute notice”.
Sir Keir was invited onto the stage, where Mr Trump asked him if “everything [was] going good”, to which the Prime Minister replied “very good” before appearing to step towards the microphone to speak.
But he was then blocked off by Mr Trump, who continued to address the world’s press, forcing Mr Starmer to back away from the lectern.
Speaking at the summit, where representatives signed a ceasefire agreement after all 20 of the remaining live Israeli hostages were released by Hamas, Sir Keir insisted that the UK would play a part in “monitoring” the cessation of attacks and “decommissioning the capability” of the terror group by “drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland”.
The Israeli hostages were released on Monday, with Israel also freeing more than 1,900 prisoners and detainees as part of the peace deal.
