Donald Trump is all but confirmed to be the next US president, and has already announced his own victory.
Keir Starmer was among the first world leaders to congratulate the Republican on his expected second term in office, adding: “I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”
However, there’s no doubt Labour’s relationship with the controversial figure may come with some... baggage.
Not only did Trump’s team accuse Labour of “blatant foreign interference” after some party activists went door-knocking for Kamala Harris, but ministers in the current government have previously used rather colourful language to talk about the US figure (from the safety of the backbenches).
Here’s a look back at some of the most damning criticisms the current cabinet have hurled at Trump over the years – before they were elevated to government ministers in July.
Prime minister Keir Starmer
He may have congratulated him on his “historic” victory this morning, but in 2019 the PM criticised Boris Johnson after Trump, who was then in his first term as US president, endorsed him to be prime minister.
Starmer posted on Twitter: “An endorsement from Donald Trump tells you everything you need to know about what is wrong with Boris Johnson’s politics and why he isn’t fit to be prime minister.”
Foreign secretary David Lammy
Perhaps the most vocal anti-Trump critic out of all the current cabinet members, Lammy refused to say in the summer whether he was wrong to declare Trump a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath” in 2018.
He also criticised Theresa May for inviting the then-president to the UK for a state visit in 2017.
When Trump locked horns with London mayor Sadiq Khan over the trip, Lammy declared the former president “a troll” who is “truly beneath contempt”.
Lammy even compared Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan to a speech from Adolf Hitler about Germany in February 1940, and once said: “If Trump did GCSEs he wouldn’t make it to sixth form.”
In September 2020, the former shadow minister wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Donald Trump cannot even bring himself to explicitly condemn white supremacists. The whole world will breathe a sigh of relief if this dangerous clown is booted out of office this November.”
Then, in January 2021 when Trump officially left the White House, he added: “Good riddance Donald. The world is relieved to see the back of you.”
Lammy has since U-turned, and joined Starmer on a trip to the US to meet Trump earlier this year. He also claims to have a strong relationship with Trump’s running mate, JD Vance.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner
In 2021, after Joe Biden’s inauguration, Rayner posted on X: “I am so happy to see the back of Donald Trump but even more so to see Kamala Harris as Vice President.”
She had also condemned the riots from January 6, 2021, criticising the former president’s “lies after the election” and describing the “violence Donald Trump has unleashed” as “terrifying”, adding: “The Republicans who stood by him have blood on their hands.”
She said the Tories were “spineless” and “toadying” for not calling out Trump’s “lies”.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper
Discussing Labour’s then infighting over Brexit back in 2017, Cooper said: “It was a referendum that was fought in good faith and nobody said at any time ‘you know what, I am not going to respect the result afterwards’.
“That’s the kind of thing Donald Trump says - and did say before the presidential election - and we were all appalled and horrified that he was saying that about the outcome of a vote.”
She also wrote off Trump’s claim that that rise in the UK crime rate was linked to “radical Islamic terror” was “inflammatory and ignorant”.
She even joined a woman’s march in 2017 to “take a stand against Donald Trump”, saying: “We are marching because the most powerful man in the [US] thinks it’s OK to grab women ‘by the pussy’.”
Health secretary Wes Streeting
In 2017, then backbencher Streeting wrote: “Trump is such an odious, sad, little man. Imagine being proud to have that as your President.”
Energy secretary Ed Miliband
In 2021, the keen environmentalist said the former administration was “four year of Trump acting as a roadblock to progress”, as Trump had called climate crisis a “green new hoax”.
He also described UK politicians who thought the win would be good for the UK as a “delusional fantasy”, adding: “The idea that we have shared values with a racist, misogynistic self-confessed groper beggars belief.”
He also called Trump an “absolute moron” in 2017, and in 2018 condemned his “his lies, his admiration for dictators” and his “racist attacks”.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy
While she recently refused to agree with one of Kamala Harris’ description of Trump as a “fascist”, Nandy was not so hesitant to criticise Trump in the past.
She called out the Tories for not condemning the then-president’s premature election victory in 2020.
She said: “To see Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, refuse to stand up for that principle of democracy was a very dangerous moment for the UK.”
But, she also said that when Trump was in power the first time, the UK should “engage” with Trump to “have the argument” with him rather than stop him from visiting the country altogether.
Welsh secretary Jo Stevens
Stevens said in 2019 that Trump was a “racist, sexist, sharer of extreme ideology, a serial liar and a cheat”.
Scotland secretary Ian Murray
When Trump was ready to leave office in early 2021, he said: “Fourteen days until the worst president in history exits the stage. He leaves with no dignity and a legacy that’s an embarrassment to the world.”
Environment secretary Steve Reed
When Trump was first elected in 2016, Reed wrote on X: “President Trump, a terrifying day for the world and for everyone who values democracy and freedom.
“A candidate who wants to jail his opponent and undermine the validity of the process is no believer in democracy.”
Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn
Benn compared Boris Johnson to Trump in 2023 in a speech, saying: “Here are two people who are trying to trash our institutions and our democracy in the process.”