Article by former British ambassador to US is likely to be seen as criticism of Keir Starmer
Lord Mandelson has accused European leaders including Keir Starmer of a “histrionic” reaction to Donald Trump’s plan to take over Greenland, arguing that without “hard power and hard cash” they will continue to slide into unimportance in the “Age of Trump”.
In his first political comments since being sacked as Britain’s ambassador to Washington last year, Mandelson said Trump had achieved “more in a day than orthodox diplomacy was able to achieve in the past decade” when he captured Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.
The intervention is likely to be seen as a criticism of the British prime minister, who has attempted to walk a diplomatic tightrope since the US captured Maduro. This week he signed a statement calling on the US president to respect Danish sovereignty over Greenland after a White House statement said the US was looking into “a range of options” in an effort to acquire Greenland, adding that using the US military to do so was “always an option”.
On Wednesday evening, Starmer “set out his position on Greenland” in a phone conversation with Trump, Downing Street said without giving further details of the call. While Starmer has steered clear of criticising Trump’s actions in Venezuela, he has repeatedly said Greenland’s future must be a matter for the territory and Denmark alone.
