According to media reports, Keir Starmer met Donald Trump in New York for a two-hour dinner, the first meeting between the new British prime minister and the former US president.
Trump, the Republican candidate for the US election in November, received the leader of the Labor Party at Trump Tower on Thursday, BBC, The Guardian and The Daily Mail reported.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump told reporters: “I actually think he’s very nice. He ran a great race. He did it very well. It’s still very early. He’s very popular.”
Starmer won a landslide victory in July’s British general election, ousting the Conservatives after 14 years in power.
Starmer said it was important for him to meet both candidates in the US election, but due to “diary challenges” it was not possible to arrange a meeting with Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
“We now have the opportunity to meet Trump, which is good,” he said.
Trump and Starmer were also joined by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who has made scathing comments about Trump in the past.
In 2018, Lammy called Trump “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath.”
However, Lammy was more diplomatic earlier this year, saying in a speech that Trump’s “stance on European security is often misunderstood.”
Starmer has taken a neutral stance on the US election, although experts say a Trump presidency could pose difficulties, particularly due to doubts about the Republican’s support for NATO and Ukraine.
Starmer was in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly.