Donald Trump attends two-hour dinner with Keir Starmer and praises ‘popular’ PM

Donald Trump attended a two-hour dinner with Sir Keir Starmer after heaping praise on the “popular” prime minister.

The former president said Sir Keir ran a “great” campaign before they met for the first time at Trump Tower in New York.

The prime minister asked for the meeting as he wants to build relations with the Republican candidate ahead of the US election in November.

He had also hoped to meet Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, but said that was not possible due to scheduling issues.

“He ran a great race”

Asked what he thought of Sir Keir, Trump joked: “Well, I’m going to see him in about an hour, so I’ll have to be nice!”

Then he added: “I actually think he’s very nice. He ran a great race, he did very well, it’s still very early, he’s very popular.”

The Republican candidate also praised Nigel Farage and said his Reform Party deserved to win more seats.

Reform received 14.3 percent of the vote in the July election, the third-highest share in the country, but widespread support meant it only got five MPs.

In contrast, the Liberal Democrats, who received 12.2 percent, secured 72 seats as their vote was heavily concentrated in parts of the south.

Mr Trump said: “I think Nigel is great, I’ve known him for a long time. He also had a great election and won a lot of seats, more seats than he was actually entitled to.

“They admitted he won, but for some reason there’s a weird system over there, you could win them but you can’t get them.”

Sir Keir was in New York for the UN General Assembly, where he gave a major speech denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.