Britain is about to pay a price for David Lammy's 'infantile' comments about Trump, warns Brendan O'Neill

The then-shadow secretary described the president elect as a "woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath" in an article for TIME magazine in 2018.

“Trump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath,” Lammy wrote, adding: “He is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of Western progress for so long.”

A year prior, he called Trump a "tyrant in a toupee" and expressed his intention to protest if he visited the UK, branding him as a "racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser" on X, formerly known as Twitter.

As Foreign Secretary, Lammy has attempted to distance himself from his past comments about Trump.

In his first interview since Trump's victory, he told the BBC's Newscast podcast that the comments were "old news" and that people would "struggle to find any politician" who had not said some "pretty ripe things" about the president-elect.

In an apparent attempt to build bridges, Lammy praised Trump's campaign as "very well run", adding: “I think he’s someone that we can build a relationship with in our national interest because we must.”

But it will take more than an empty gesture to repair the damage he has done, reckons Spiked political writer Brendan O'Neil.

He told GB News: "David Lammy's now saying, 'oh it doesn't matter, Trump doesn't care, it's old news'. I'm sorry, it's not old news, it's not old news that a fully grown adult who at that time was a member of Parliament and a fairly leading Labour politician was making such ridiculous, juvenile, six-form style political comments,that's incredibly serious."

He continued: "This wasn't some 15-year-oldin a Reddit forumtalking about Trump and politics,this was a Labour MP,who's now the Foreign Secretary,who was throwing out thesecompletely evidence-free insults,against the President of the United States,as he was then,and he will be again soon,it was extraordinary."

Lammy's past comments will come back to haunt him when Trump returns to the Oval Office, he predicts, adding: "These things really matter.

"Trump and his advisors will know that the Labour government is full of people,who are implacably hostile to Trump,and who probably look down their nosesat the kind of people who voted for Trump.

"All of thishas a material impact and it will potentially impact our political and defence relationship with America. It's very possible that the infantile temper tantrums will lead to a situationwhere Britain suffers as a consequence."

Others are more sanguine about Lammy's past comments, feeling that the "special relationship" can weather any diplomatic storm.

"Trump will always put international issues above any personal insults that are thrown at him," Nigel Farage told GB News.

Indeed, Labour will seek to strengthen its ties with the incoming administration as Trump imposes tariffs on countries that run significant trade deficits with America.

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As some analysts have pointed out, Britain may actually benefit from Trump's zero-sum approach to global trade as she has a far smaller trade surplus with America than many other countries.

The total trade between the US and UK reached £304.3 billion ($388 billion) over the four quarters ending in Q2 of 2024.

“The UK's benefit is it’s not in the trade war crosshairs. It just doesn’t have that same need to level the playing field and level the trade imbalance,” Jonathan Pingle, chief U.S. economist at UBS, told CNBC Tuesday.

Europe and China are expected to bear the brunch of Trump's tariff war as both have significantly higher trade surpluses with America.