Starmer’s pragmatic approach to handling President Donald Trump is the right one

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “An external revenue service” would raise “massive amounts of money” to collect tariffs, duties and revenues, which will send shivers around the world – though there was no detail. Let us hope Mr Trump sees the logic of the argument, made by European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer, to bolster Ukraine’s defences before any peace negotiations so Volodymyr Zelensky enters them in the strongest possible position. Sir Ed Davey has nothing to lose by positioning his Liberal Democrats as the only party that will stand up to Mr Trump, but Sir Keir must live in the real world where compromises must be made and deals struck with a president who, as Germany’s Angela Merkel recalled in her memoirs, “judged everything from the perspective of the property entrepreneur he had been before politics”. For example, he should not allow Mr Trump to divert him from his vital goal to reduce friction with the EU to boost UK growth; his immediate aim should be to get as close to the EU as possible without crossing Labour’s “red lines” – not rejoining the single market or customs union.