UK ‘will not yield’ on Greenland, Keir Starmer warns Donald Trump

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Donald Trump of trying to pressure him over Greenland, insisting that such threats were “completely wrong” and declaring: “I will not yield.”

The UK prime minister’s comments were his most vehement criticisms of the US president, and brought him closer to other Nato leaders who have stepped up their own attacks on Trump in recent days.

Speaking to a packed House of Commons on Wednesday, Starmer said it was up to the people of Greenland and Denmark to determine the future of the Arctic island and that he would stand behind them.

Starmer has accused Trump of threatening 10 per cent tariffs to apply pressure on Britain and seven other European countries to back down and allow the US to take ownership of the Danish territory.

“Threats of tariffs to pressurise allies are completely wrong,” he told cheering Labour MPs as he vowed to stick to his “principles and values”.

The prime minister said Trump’s social media attacks on the UK’s deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands were made with the “express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain” over Greenland. 

“He wants me to yield on my position and I’m not going to do so,” Starmer said. He added: “I will not yield, Britain will not yield, on our principles and values about the future of Greenland under threats of tariffs.”

Starmer, who decided not to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, accused Trump of “splitting the world at the moment with material consequences” with his plans to take over Greenland.

While Trump is due to address the gathering of business and political leaders, Starmer announced he would meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Downing Street on Thursday.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she and Starmer agreed that “the future of Greenland should only be decided by the people of Greenland”.

But she repeated her endorsement of Trump’s criticism of Britain’s deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, which are home to a crucial US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.

She said the billions of pounds earmarked by London to lease back that island should be spent instead on Britain’s armed forces. 

Trump on Tuesday said the deal agreed last year showed “total weakness” and was an “act of stupidity”, and cited it as a reason for Washington to seize Greenland.

Starmer accused Badenoch of “jumping on the bandwagon” by joining Trump’s attacks. 

Urged by Sir Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, to emulate French President Emmanuel Macron and stand up “far more strongly” to Trump, Starmer hit back that it was “foolhardy to think that we should rip up our relationship with the US” and “abandon Ukraine”.

Davey said the delay to the government’s defence investment plan, initially promised last autumn, was “putting critical industries like the helicopter manufacturing base in Yeovil at risk”.