Starmer's knee-bending to Donald Trump is cringey, says Nick Clegg

The relationship between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump is “getting a bit embarrassing”, former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg has said.

Speaking at an event at the Liberal Democrat conference, Sir Nick said the “endless knee-bending” was “slightly cringey” as he urged the prime minister to “speak up” for British values.

Downing Street has sought to cultivate a constructive relationship with the unpredictable US president and has pointed to a deal on trade as one result of their efforts.

Trump came to the UK last week for a three-day visit which included marching bands, a flypast by the Red Arrows and a state banquet at Windsor Castle.

Sir Nick argued that amid the “pomp and circumstances” some of the actions of the Trump administration should have been “called out” such as its lukewarm attitude towards Nato, the transatlantic military alliance.

He argued that the government’s desire to court the US president stemmed from a “miscalculation” that the UK “does not have to choose between the US and the EU”.

“That is rubbish on stilts,” he said, adding: “We can’t have our cake and eat it. We will have to choose.”

Although he welcomed some of the investment announced during the visitSir Nick cautioned the British government against becoming too dependent on the US and its technology, arguing that the relationship between the two countries was changing “irrevocably”.

Sir Keir has said the investment is “boosting jobs and driving growth across the country”, adding: “We are making change happen for working people.”

Sir Nick also backed the current Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, over his strong condemnation of tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Last week, Musk told protesters at the Unite the Kingdom rally that they would have to “fight back or you die”.

Speaking at an event organised by the Institute for Government, Sir Nick labelled the comments an “outrageous intrusion into our sovereignty”.

Sir Nick said the party’s conference in Bournemouth would be the first he had attended in a decade, telling the audience he felt “a mixture of delight and PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]”.

He was leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015, during which time he took the party into a coalition with the Conservatives and led the party to a heavy defeat in the 2015 general election.

He has recently returned from a seven-year stint in the US where he was president of global affairs for Meta, the social media giant that owns Facebook and Instagram.

Reflecting on his decision to leave the company, he said he might have “drunk the Kool-Aid a bit” and had chosen to leave because he no longer felt like “an outsider” in Silicon Valley.

His departure coincided with the return to the White House of Trump, whom Sir Nick had previously banned from Facebook.

Asked if he would consider a return to frontline politics, Sir Nick said: “No.”

The Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth continues on Monday, with the party calling for health warnings to be added to social media apps to help protect children’s mental health.

It said that the addictive nature of social media apps means that it is time they had warnings attached similar to those required for cigarettes and alcohol, suggesting that extended use of social media is strongly correlated with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Another idea is a two-hour limit to the time children can spend on platforms like TikTok.

The party says its aim is not to stop children using social media apps or connecting with friends online, but to ensure they are educated about the risks at a time when there is a crisis in young people’s mental health.