Can Starmer be the bridge between Europe and the US?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

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🗓️ 17 February 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

There is lots to make sense of today in a huge week for European and world politics, with the fallout of the Munich Conference and today’s emergency summit in Paris. European powers are trying to navigate peace in Ukraine in the face of a belligerently isolationist Trump administration. The UK is caught between preserving its privileged position with the US and the desire for a European reset, as well as the need for an end to the war in Ukraine without giving in to Russia. Can Starmer bridge the transatlantic chasm that has opened up? Do the Europeans want us, and do the Americans need us?

Events in Europe will be incredibly consequential here in the UK. In an op-ed for The Telegraph, the Prime Minister has confirmed that he is ready and willing to put British troops in Ukraine and has set out plans to maintain the manifesto promise to pledge 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence spending, going against the Treasury. How difficult will it be for Starmer to make the case for increased defence spending?

Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're hosting our first Coffee House Shots live event of 2025 on the 26th of February at the
0:04.8	Emanuel Centre in Westminster. Join Michael Gove, Katie Bowles, Kate Andrews and very special guests,
0:10.8	Jonathan Ashworth and Robert Jenrick for a look to the year ahead. They'll be tackling such questions
0:15.7	as, can the Chancellor reframe the budget in her first spring statement? What will Trump's first
0:20.6	100 days look like? And will reform cause and upset at the local elections? For tickets,
0:25.4	go to spectator.co.com.uk forward slash coffeehouse live.
0:33.5	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Oscar Edmondson and I'm joined today by James Heel and Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform.
0:45.4	Now, there's lots to make sense of in a huge week for European and world politics with the fallout of the Munich Conference and today's emergency summit in Paris, where European
0:55.1	powers are trying to navigate, peace in Ukraine in the face of a belligerently isolationist
0:59.8	Trump administration. Now, Charles, lots of people are sort of mourning the disintegration of the
1:05.6	transatlantic alliance after this weekend's conference, and this change dynamic between Europe
1:10.7	and America.
1:11.9	But you were actually in Munich. Could you maybe give us your thoughts on the conference?
1:15.9	Essentially what J.D. Vance said and what other Americans like General Kellogg said really
1:21.8	shocked Europeans, they're particularly Germans. I mean, one thing that shocked was simply
1:27.0	Vance saying that their AFD,
1:29.2	the alternative for Deutscheland, are kind of good guys, you should talk to them, include them,
1:32.4	bring them into government. Because I think people in the UK may wrongly assume that the AFD is like
1:38.0	Reform UK. It's not. It's a much more extreme right-wing party. It has many members in it who are
1:43.0	openly neo-Nazi. And Madame Le Pen,
1:45.5	the leader of the French far right, refuses to sit in the same group as the AFD and the European
1:49.1	Parliament. That's why the German political elite was so shocked by Vance, openly courting
	...

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