Angela Rayner had a quick phone-chat with US vice president-elect JD Vance on nov-8th to smooth-out past issues (she once called Donald Trump a buffoon). The deputy-PM posted on X about their good talk and future team-work plans
Four years back Rayner wasnt shy about her views — she called Trump an embarrassment during covid times and blamed him for giving bad health-tips to Americans. She even used words like phoney-president and after jan-6 events said Republicans had blood on their hands
The Labour team including David Lammy and Sir Keir Starmer now needs to fix things up. After Trumps win he talked to many world-leaders — Macron Netanyahu and bin Salman got calls before UK; In Budapest Starmer told reporters: “Me and Trump had dinner in NY few weeks ago it was very positive“
Joe Biden says heʼll make sure power moves to Trump nice and easy. He wants everyone to be more calm about politics now but still plans to do some last-minute work: like stopping oil-drilling where Trump wants to start it. Some Dems think Biden shouldʼve stepped back earlier
Jonathan Reynolds the trade-talks chief also needs to deal with past words — he once said Trump was mean to Muslims. But Labour folks point to Vance (who used to compare Trump to Hitler before becoming his friend) as proof that old fights dont matter much