Starmer and Trump: special relationship or odd couple?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Keir Starmer has completed his first visit to the White House – and delivered a letter from King Charles to Donald Trump. So just how special is the special relationship looking this weekend? Defence expert Karin von Hippel, formerly of RUSI, joins the podcast team to look back on a huge week for international relations. Does the PM’s plan to boost defence spending by cutting the international aid budget add up. We’ll look at the sums - and weigh up the consequences of this trade-off. PLUS: The boss of the NHS is on the way out and local government finances are under massive pressure. Presented by Hannah White. With Alex Thomas and Stuart Hoddinott Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government. I'm Hannah White.
0:19.2	So we don't recycle the introduction to this podcast, but it is
0:22.1	starting to feel a bit familiar because it isn't really hard to guess who has been dominating
0:27.2	the news, making headlines and shaping decisions across the globe again this week. Yes,
0:32.1	that's right. It's Donald Trump. We're recording this on Friday, which means we've had time
0:36.8	to grade Kirstarmer's first visit to the White House and judge how special or not at the latest era of the special relationship is turning out to be.
0:45.9	Kirstama bought a letter from the king and won some points for his accent, but did he get any concrete promises from Trump?
0:53.3	We'll take a look.
0:55.8	The Prime Minister warmed up for his trip to the US by making a dramatic policy announcement, which some suggested
1:00.6	was in part designed to keep the US President happy. Defense spending is going up,
1:06.1	paid for by cuts to the international aid budget. We're going to look at the sums and we're
1:10.2	going to weigh up the consequences of the trade-off the government has decided to make. And there is, though it can
1:17.9	be hard to get a look in these days, some significant domestic news to explore as well. The boss of the
1:23.2	NHS is on her way out. Local government finances are under massive pressure. Our public services
1:28.6	expert is here to explain what's going on. All this to come then. Joining me throughout is
1:34.8	IFG program director Alex Thomas, who apparently can't not for want to trying, stop looking at
1:39.9	whatever President Trump is showing on his social media feed. How's that going, Alex?
1:45.3	Yeah, I mean, okay. I think we'll go on to talk about it, but I suppose things seem a little
1:51.0	bit more optimistic this morning, although I have to say weighing even more heavily on me is the fact
1:54.5	I was at a dinner and then the leaving drinks for our colleague Joe Owen last night.
1:58.7	So that may be sort of more present in my mind than even Donald
2:01.2	Trump. We won't explore that any further, Alex. And I'm delighted that we're joined by Karen von Hi,
	...

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