Prime minister’s chief fixer says UK relationship with US is strong and will continue with Trump in the White House

Good morning. The election of Donald Trump as the next US president will create profound challenges for Labour, and for many governments around the world, and 24 hours on we are starting to get a better sense of how Labour will respond. Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister and Starmer’s lead political “fixer” in government has just finished a media round where he has been talking about almost nothing else. And the strategy that is emerging? Be nice, and hope for the best.

Keir Starmer has been working hard to establish a good relationship with Trump since he became PM and we saw more of this last night, when he had his first call with the president-elect. No 10 normally issues a readout when the PM has a call with a foreign leader, and normally these are among the most dry, boring and uninformative press releases to come out of Whitehall. But this is what Downing Street released last night.

The prime minister spoke to President-elect Donald Trump this evening to congratulate him on his historic victory.

The prime minister offered his hearty congratulations and said he looked forward to working closely with President-elect Trump across all areas of the special relationship.

I think in the end the relationship between the two countries is just much deeper than stuff like that … One thing I know as a cabinet member in the British government is the friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom is really important, it’s benefit beneficial for both countries, and it’s in our national interest to maintain that.

I think you’ve got to understand that in an election, a lot of fiery things are said, and President-elect Trump says a lot of fiery things, and the important thing is what he actually does.

We obviously have interests as a trading nation. We want to protect and look after our interests, and we always want to have a dialogue with the US administration about those.