Trump’s snubbing of Starmer was both deserved and depressing

It was pretty funny, wasn’t it? The way Donald Trump called over our eunuch prime minister from the row of world leaders behind him – his cry of ‘United Kingdom? Where’s the United Kingdom?’ has become the new ‘Yo, Blair’ – only to then snub poor old Keir Starmer as he lumbered simperingly for the lectern.

Funny, yes. But the laughs only lasted so long. For this moment of comedy yesterday, at the Sharm El Sheikh peace summit, was also a tragic expression of the depths to which our great country has sunk under the ‘leadership’ of the man who has nothing to commend him other than the former occupation of his late father. Because while many voters may have savoured the sight of the least popular prime minister since records began being humiliated by Trump, the real loser in all of this is Britain.

Let’s set aside for a moment the taxes that have driven our economy into the ground, the national-insurance hikes that have caused unemployment to rise again today, and the general dodginess that riddles this government, from Lord Alli’s largesse to the national-security adviser’s ‘close links’, as The Sunday Times puts it, to the Chinese Communist Party.

Granted, that’s a fair amount to set aside. But if we don’t limit ourselves to foreign policy, I’ll be writing another book. In fact, here we find even more to set aside: let’s allow ourselves to ignore Starmer’s egregious decision to hand the Chagos Islands over to China’s ally, Mauritius, along with up to £30 billion of taxpayers’ cash for the privilege. For the sake of brevity, let’s focus on the Middle East.

Take recognising a Palestinian state back in September. What on Earth was that about? Yes, the French did it, but wouldn’t that normally suggest that Britain should do the opposite?

The fact that Hamas openly celebrated and formally congratulated No10 for this should have been something of a red flag. But even that was not enough for the prime minister to change course. In fact, he didn’t even amend his compass when the jihadis, emboldened by British support, pulled out of peace negotiations with Israel as a consequence.

Here was a foreign policy that could have been explicitly designed to benefit the enemy. (I assume the government would describe Hamas in those terms, even if it finds itself unable to say the same about China.) All Britain’s pressure was heaped on Israel to withdraw from Gaza, leaving its hostages behind and Hamas still in power. From the point of view of the jihadis, there were now clear incentives to reject the ceasefire proposal. Continuing the war would win statehood.

And so it came to pass. It feels like a long time ago, looking back as we do from the vantage point of knowing that the hostages are finally home. But the backstory is important to fully appreciate the abject humiliation of Starmer.

What came next? The Manchester synagogue atrocities, earlier this month. I’d hazard a guess that Hamas celebrated that bloodletting with almost as much gusto as it has celebrated British foreign policy. Yet Starmer still did not seem to note the grim irony of the thing as he publicly lamented the murders.

In truth, his unilateral recognition of Palestine, without first calling for the hostages to be released or Hamas to surrender, had given the prime-ministerial seal of approval to the idea that Israel was the problem, not jihadism.

That was precisely what Manchester terrorist Jihad al-Shamie appeared to think. Indeed, it was precisely what Hamas wants us all to think. It is shocking how many it has managed to persuade. On 7 October 2023, Hamas militants filmed their butchery on GoPros and shared the footage with the world. They then made no secret of hiding among Gazan civilians for the purposes of creating blood-soaked propaganda images.

Yet we still fell for the ruse. My God, we still fell for the ruse. It’s like a magician telling you in advance how he does the trick, then basking in awestruck applause anyway. The general public may be forgiven for this, to an extent: they do not necessarily have the time to interrogate the veracity of the pictures to which they are subjected on the nightly news, and wonder about the ones that are always left out (such as the images of dead jihadis). But the prime minister? Hook line and virtue-signalling sinker.

Which brings us to the crunch: Bridget Phillipson claiming last weekend that Britain ‘played a key role behind the scenes’ in securing the Gaza peace deal. What was she thinking?

It was actually quite comical that the education secretary thought she would get away with it. But she hadn’t counted on the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who posted: ‘I can assure you she’s delusional.’

Delicious, no? Well, no. Not really. On a superficial level perhaps, but this is supposed to be Britain, the home of Magna Carta, the Domesday Book, parliamentary democracy, the Industrial Revolution, the abolition of slavery and victory for the free world in the Second World War. Have we really been reduced to this?

All of which brings me back to my original point: when Trump humiliated Keir Starmer on the world stage yesterday, it was both highly enjoyable and deeply depressing at the same time. Still, with four years left of this circus of incompetence, virtue-signalling, sleaze and appeasement, you’ve got to take your laughs where you can find them, I suppose.

Jake Wallis Simons is author of Never Again? How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself.