UK ‘will not yield’ on Greenland, Keir Starmer warns Donald Trump

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Donald Trump of trying to pressure him over Greenland, insisting that such threats were “completely wrong” and declaring: “I will not yield.”

The UK prime minister’s comments were his most vehement criticisms of the US president, and brought him closer to other Nato leaders who have stepped up their own attacks on Trump in recent days.

Speaking to a packed House of Commons on Wednesday, Starmer said it was up to the people of Greenland and Denmark to determine the future of the Arctic island and that he would stand behind them.

Starmer has accused Trump of threatening 10 per cent tariffs to apply pressure on Britain and seven other European countries to back down and allow the US to take ownership of the Danish territory.

“Threats of tariffs to pressurise allies are completely wrong,” he told cheering Labour MPs as he vowed to stick to his “principles and values”.

The prime minister said Trump’s social media attacks on the UK’s deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands were made with the “express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain” over Greenland. 

“He wants me to yield on my position and I’m not going to do so,” Starmer said. He added: “I will not yield, Britain will not yield, on our principles and values about the future of Greenland under threats of tariffs.”

Starmer, who decided not to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, accused Trump of “splitting the world at the moment with material consequences” with his plans to take over Greenland.

Shortly before Trump addressed the gathering of business and political leaders on Wednesday, Starmer announced he would meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Downing Street on Thursday.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she and Starmer agreed that “the future of Greenland should only be decided by the people of Greenland”.

But she repeated her endorsement of Trump’s criticism of Britain’s deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, which are home to a crucial US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.

She said the billions of pounds earmarked by London to lease back that island should be spent instead on Britain’s armed forces. 

Trump on Tuesday said the deal agreed in 2025 showed “total weakness” and was an “act of stupidity”, and cited it as a reason for Washington to seize Greenland. Last year Marco Rubio, secretary of state, said the US “welcomed” the accord.

Starmer in the Commons accused Badenoch of “jumping on the bandwagon” by joining Trump’s attacks. 

Speaking at the WEF, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the world would be in a more secure place if the US owned Greenland, but that the rights and views of the Greenlanders must be respected. “That is what national self determination is,” he said.   

Responding to Trump’s Davos speech, in which the president ruled out using force to acquire the island but called for immediate negotiations, Farage said the president was a good thing for Nato because he had pushed for higher defence spending.

But he said he took issue with Trump’s claims that Nato members had not been giving anything back to the US, pointing to the allies’ participation in Afghanistan. This applied to Denmark as well as the other members, he said. 

Earlier at Davos, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said there had been some “glitches” in the UK-US trade deal, as tensions between the traditional allies rise.

The two countries signed a trade agreement last year that included cuts to punitive US tariffs on car and steel exports.

But Washington has suspended implementation of a technology deal struck with London during Trump’s state visit to Britain last year, partly over a row about US efforts to boost farm exports to the UK.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is also in Davos, said there was “no shortage of dialogue” between the two countries and stressed that she was in regular contact with Bessent.

British officials said talks with US officials in Davos, also involving business secretary Peter Kyle and Number 10 business envoy Varun Chandra, had been positive.

“We did hit some tricky bits but we are well back on track,” said one UK official.