Labour minister struggles to name any benefits of Trump election win in awkward Question Time grilling

The Independent

Labour minister struggles to name any benefits of Trump returning to White HouseSource: BBC

Transcript

00:00What benefits could he bring?

00:01That's how Stephen has phrased his question.

00:05Well, we already have a really interwoven relationship

00:09with America, and we have done for years and years and years.

00:12And the trade that you talk about

00:14is incredibly important for the UK.

00:17The trade between our two countries

00:18is about 300 billion pounds a year.

00:21If you look at inward investment coming into the UK,

00:25we had a big investment summit a few weeks ago.

00:28There were some big American firms

00:29that are investing in the UK.

00:31Equally, some of our firms go and invest in America.

00:34So we have this very strong relationship

00:37when it comes to security, when it

00:38comes to intelligence sharing.

00:40But none of that is specific to Trump.

00:42I mean, that's a relation with America.

00:43What about Trump specifically?

00:44Well, what I would hope is that we

00:45have a new president who won a very decisive victory.

00:49So he has a clear mandate for four years.

00:52We've just had a general election in the UK,

00:54and we won a clear mandate for four years.

00:56So these two governments need to work together for the right of...

01:01Can you not think of any benefits?

01:02Yeah, I think this is what I'm saying.

01:04I'm saying, I think, if you look at what's happened,

01:08if you look at the relationships we have,

01:10then I hope we work with Donald Trump to build on those.

01:13I hope we have more trade.

01:14I know you were talking about trade.

01:14I hope we have more security arrangements.

01:16If you look at the world at the moment,

01:19the point that you made, the dangers that we see around us,

01:23you know, this is an insecure world.

01:24America is the most powerful country in the world.

01:27He is the most powerful president.

01:29We have to be working really closely

01:31to make sure we are delivering progress in the Middle East,

01:35for example.

01:36And that's what Keir Starmer, in his conversation with Donald

01:39Trump, spoke about yesterday.

01:41This is an opportunity to get some kind of change

01:44to the really awful situation we find in the Middle East,

01:47is one example.

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