AMERICA FIRST...BRITAIN LAST?

Where does the new president's isolationism (and leading Labour figures' fierce criticism of him) leave the special US-UK relationship?

- JASON BEATTIE

THIS was not the result Keir Starmer had wanted. The Prime Minister and his inner circle had hoped to wake up to the cheers from Kamala Harris’s victory party in Washington DC.

Instead they switched on their televisions to see wild celebrations at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Ahead of the election, Downing Street had been preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. Now the worst has happened.

If he was disappointed, Starmer hid it behind the most diplomatic of brave faces.

“As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise,” the Prime Minister said in a statement congratulating President-elect Trump on his victory.

A few hours later, at Prime Minister’s Questions, there was the obligatory reference to the Special Relationship between the US and UK.

He said: “We live in probably a more volatile world than we have for decades and it’s absolutely crucial that we have that strong, Special Relationship, forged in difficult circumstances... we will continue to work together on issues of security, our economy and global conflict.”

The PM will have felt duty bound to utter such words but there is no avoiding the trepidation in No10 that a second Trump term could test the bonds of the Special Relationship to breaking point.