Peter Lamb MP: We need to talk about Donald Trump

There isn’t much point in pretending I’m happy with the result, in 2016 I spent my holiday campaigning against Trump in the Presidential Election. Yet, I’m a lot less apocalyptic about the result than most. Almost every Republican win seems to be treated as bringing on the end of the world, it never does and we’ve already survived four years of Trump in office.

That isn’t to say that another four years won’t be without consequences, but these are largely limited to US domestic policy. For those outside of America, the potential impacts are really limited to two policy areas: Defence and Trade.

In terms of Trade, post-Brexit, the UK needs to rebuild its trading relationships and the only other economy of similar size to the EU is the USA. Talks in his first-term suggested a deal depended upon opening the NHS to American healthcare companies, which is obviously a non-starter for a Labour Government. There’s no reason to imagine a better deal in his second-term.

More significant globally will be changes to Defence. Mr Trump’s campaign suggested a general retreat of US military power, with potentially vast consequences to global order, no more so than in Ukraine.

Whatever our sympathies for the Ukrainian people, do not doubt the UK’s support for Ukraine is entirely selfish. It’s about limiting Russian expansion to avoid a wider conflict in Europe, risking a nuclear exchange.

Whatever America’s future role in NATO, other member states must ensure Ukraine continues to receive the support they need to survive. That doesn’t come for free, but everything we do now to ensure Russian Imperialism ends in Ukraine pays for lives saved of British servicepeople and civilians down the line.