Starmer: Harris changed presidential campaign ‘profoundly’

Dina Mahmoud (London)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Harris replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee had profoundly changed the US presidential campaign in November. “There has clearly been a profound change in recent weeks,” Starmer said yesterday, adding, “I think everyone can see the energy that Harris has brought.”
Britain’s Labour Party, which returned to Downing Street in July after 14 years of Conservative rule, has close ties to the US Democratic Party. But Starmer has now adopted a more neutral stance, saying in Berlin: “This is a matter for the American people to decide, and we will work with whoever they elect,” stressing the strength of the special relationship between the two countries.
According to the results of a poll conducted by the global company “Ipsos”, nearly half of the British people believe that Kamala Harris’ victory over her Republican rival Donald Trump would be more in the national interests of their country. The results indicate that 47% of the British people surveyed expressed a positive attitude towards Harris in this regard, compared to 24% who adopted the same position towards Trump. The percentage of those who expressed confidence that the Democratic candidate’s victory would advance Britain’s interests is about 8% higher than its counterpart that was previously recorded for President Joe Biden, when he was still a Democratic candidate. Last May, about a month and a half before Biden announced his withdrawal from his attempt to remain in the White House, a similar poll showed that the percentage of Britons who believe that the re-election of the current US president for a second term would be in the interest of their country did not exceed 39%.
In contrast, the latest poll of more than 1,000 people found that only 20% of those surveyed believed that Trump’s return to the Oval Office, four years after he left it, would be good for the UK. The results also showed that the British public is more supportive of Harris than of Trump and Biden combined, with 34% of those who had a positive view of the Democratic candidate, compared to 26% who had a similar view of Biden and 24% who had a similar view of Trump.
As for the potential impact of the US presidential election results on US-UK relations, the poll revealed that 46% of Britons believe that Harris’ presidency would have a positive impact on this issue, a significant increase from the 27% who expressed the same opinion when Biden was the Democratic party in the race.
According to the same results, published on the Ipsos website, more than half of those surveyed believe that Trump’s victory will negatively affect relations between the two prominent allies on both sides of the Atlantic.
In addition, the results of the opinion poll, which was conducted online over three days late last month, indicated that 50% of Britons prefer Harris to win the presidency, compared to 21% who wish Trump to return to the White House.