(Bloomberg) -- Keir Starmer should be prepared to use populist Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as a “bridgehead” to working with US President-elect Donald Trump, according to a key ally of the British prime minister who’s tipped to become the UK’s next ambassador to Washington.
Peter Mandelson, a key member of past Labour governments run by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, also said in the Times newspaper’s How To Win An Election podcast that Starmer’s administration should try and kick “into touch as soon as possible” a burgeoning feud with the billionaire Elon Musk, who’s set to take a role in the US administration when Trump takes power in January.
“I would include Nigel Farage; I mean, you can’t ignore him,” Mandelson said in the podcast, released Tuesday. “He’s a public figure. He’s a bridgehead, both to President Trump and to Elon Musk and others. You’ve got to be pragmatic, practical about this. You’ve got to work the national interest in and that national interest is served in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways.”
The remarks by Mandelson, 71, give a potential insight into how Starmer may try to manage the relationship with the unpredictable Trump, which got off to a rocky start even before the former president returns to office. That’s because the longtime Labour fixer is in the running to be Britain’s next ambassador to the US, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a final decision hasn’t been made.
During the presidential campaign, Trump’s lawyers used a filing with the Federal Election Commission to accuse Starmer’s Labour Party of “blatant foreign interference” and illegal foreign campaign contributions to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign.
Separately, Musk has taken repeated potshots against Starmer’s government and its policies in posts on X since the summer, leading to rebuttals from Downing Street and a snub when he wasn’t invited to a key British investment summit last month.
Mandelson advised the government to “swallow your pride” and use the embassy in Washington to find out who Musk’s British friends are.
“You cannot just continue this feud indefinitely, you’ve got to get over it,” he said. “He’s got to be reintroduced to the British government. And one good way of doing that might be through some of his British friends, even if they are not, as I say, you know, bright red supporters of the Labour government.”
Farage is a long-time friend of Trump who the President-elect singled out at a rally in the final days of the presidential campaign. The Reform UK leader has frequently offered his services as a conduit to the incoming president — who himself once said Farage would make a “great” ambassador to the US.
But there’s also danger for Starmer in using Farage, who won a seat in the House of Commons in the UK’s July 4 election at the eighth time of asking. After eating into the Conservative vote to return five Reform Members of Parliament, Farage said after the vote that he was now coming for Labour.
Making use of Farage’s friendship with Trump could further raise his profile, improving Reform’s chances at the next general election due in 2029.
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