Keir Starmer said Donald Trump’s guilty verdict is an “unprecedented situation” but that he will work with whoever is elected US President.
The Labour leader said the UK has a “special relationship with the US that transcends whoever the President is” after Mr Trump was convicted in a hush money trial. Mr Trump is set to be crowned the Republican candidate days after his sentencing on July 11. The US constitution does not block people with criminal candidates from being elected President.
A New York jury found the ex-President guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said the two had sex. Mr Trump insisted he was a “very innocent man” and claimed without evidence the trial was “rigged”.
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Responding to reporters at a campaign event in Scotland, Mr Starmer said said: “First and foremost we respect the court’s decision in relation to the decision in the Trump case. The sentencing is still to go and possible appeals but we respect the court process.”
He added: “In the end it is for the American people to decide who they want to elect as their President. And if we’re privileged enough to come into Government, we will work with whoever is elected President… that’s what you’d expect.
“We have a special relationship with the US that transcends whoever the President is, but it is an unprecedented situation, there is no doubt about that. And there’s a long way yet to go I think in relation to what happens next.”
It comes after Rishi Sunak declined to say if he would work with Mr Trump if either of them was re-elected. He said: “You wouldn’t expect me to comment on another country’s domestic politics or judicial processes. I’m focused squarely on the election here at home, talking to people across the country about the choice at our election. That’s my focus.”
Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary and a close ally of Mr Sunak, described Mr Trump’s conviction as “extraordinary”. But he added: “What I’m absolutely sure of is that whatever the outcome of the election – and I very much hope that Rishi is back in Number 10 for all sorts of reasons that we may come on to – that we will have a good and enduring continuingly positive relationship with the United States, whoever is going to be president in November.”