Polanski has said that the UK needs to look at removing US military bases from British soil
Zack Polanski has said Keir Starmer needs to “take his head out of the sand” over Donald Trump’s Greenland plans.
In a Sky News interview, the Green Party leader said that the tariffs Trump is trying to slap on the UK is “a way of having a tantrum” and “completely unacceptable”.
Polanski said “Greenland has to be for Greenlanders, it’s not for someone to buy or sell it”.
Speaking to Sky presenter Darren McCaffrey, Polanski said: “It’s really time for Keir Starmer to take his head out of the sand and see how dangerous this moment is.”
Starmer has said that Trump’s tariff threats on the UK and other Nato countries are “completely wrong”.
However, the prime minister has currently ruled out imposing retaliatory tariffs on the US, after Trump said he would impose 10% tariffs on goods from the UK and other countries that oppose his plan to take over Greenland.
In a speech yesterday, Starmer re-affirmed that the US and the UK are “close allies” and that “that relationship matters profoundly”.
The Green Party leader said that the UK government should take a more radical approach, and review US military bases that are on UK soil, in light of Trump’s tariff threats.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable for the United States to be making threats on another Nato country. We know article 5 says an attack on one is an attack on all,” Polanski said.
He also said that 86% of military imports to the UK come from the US, and that “Keir Starmer should be looking at this and saying they’re not a reliable ally, why are we giving them all of this money”.
Polanski said that if the Green Party was in government, he’d be focusing on relying “a lot less on the United States and rebuild[ing] our relationship with our European neighbours”.
Polanski also raised concerns about the nuclear weapon Trident, which Starmer admitted in a press conference that the UK cannot use without a relationship with the US and Donald Trump.
“I don’t think we should be putting our national security in the hands of whether Donald Trump is in a good mood or not,” Polanski said.
Starmer has said that “the future of Greenland is for the Greenlanders and for the Danes alone”.
Urging calm over Trump’s trade war threats, Starmer has been accused of appeasing Trump instead of taking a firm stance.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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