Sir Keir Starmer ‘completely subservient’ to Donald Trump – Zack Polanski
The leader of the Green Party has accused Sir Keir Starmer of being “completely subservient” to US President Donald Trump.
It comes after Sir Keir launched an attack on Zack Polanski during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday where he accused him of being “high on drugs, soft on Putin”.
On Thursday morning, Mr Polanski joined campaigners outside Palantir’s headquarters in central London who were calling for an end to the US tech giant’s contract to provide data software for the NHS.
Speaking at the demonstration, Mr Polanski criticised Sir Keir’s comments saying they were “completely disgraceful” and “deeply disrespectful”.
He said: “When Donald Trump told us who he was the first time we should have believed him.
“This is a dangerous man who is behaving in increasingly unpredictable ways and our Government over and over again, through Keir Starmer has been completely subservient, both in terms of healthcare systems we’re talking about today and the link to Palantir, but also in terms of our military defence.
“We need to have an urgent review about US bases on UK soil and certainly if Donald Trump invades Greenland then it is time to evict them from those US bases.”
Of the Prime Minister’s comments, Mr Polanski added: “When I’m calling for legalisation and regulation of drugs, I’m following what people in the sector are saying is a public health approach.
“He should be taking that seriously rather than making cheap jokes and to say I’m soft on Putin is a pretty ridiculous statement when he is the man who is subservient to Donald Trump, a man who says he admires Vladimir Putin.”
At PMQs, Sir Keir had been responding to Green MP Ellie Chowns, who raised a question about agricultural pollution getting “one single page” in the water white paper.
The Prime Minister initially addressed the question, saying his Government had “inherited a real mess on water” and was taking steps to deal with it.
Sir Keir added: “I have to say, as someone who stood to lead her party, I wonder what she makes of how her leader is responding to this global uncertainty.
“Because what he’s saying is: this is the time, this is the moment to withdraw from Nato.
“This is the time to kick the US out of our military bases, this is the time to negotiate with Putin to give up our nuclear deterrent. I’m sure Putin (will) be very quick on the line for that one.
“It’s as reckless and irresponsible as their plan to legalise heroin and crack cocaine. That’s the Green Party now: high on drugs, soft on Putin.”
In October last year, Mr Polanski told the BBC he wants to legalise all drugs, calling for an approach “led by public health experts” rather than politicians, and in an interview with the Guardian earlier this week advocated leaving Nato.
He told the latter: “Donald Trump has so much domination within Nato that I don’t believe it’s possible to reform Nato from within.”
Palantir was co-founded by billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, who was an early backer of Mr Trump, and has worked with the US government.
It was announced in November 2023 that a group led by Palantir had secured a £330 million contract to provide the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP).
The shared software system will aim to make it easier for health and care organisations to work together and provide better services to patients, but Palantir’s involvement sparked concerns about how patient data will be used.
In June, the British Medical Association (BMA) passed a motion stating the company is an “unacceptable choice” for the FDP at its annual representative meeting in Liverpool.
The union’s members voted in favour of the BMA lobbying against the introduction of Palantir software in the health service, and called for the Department of Health and Social Care to create an audit of the progress of the uptake of the systems throughout the NHS.
In a letter addressed to Palantir’s chief executive Alex Karp, Mr Polanski said on Thursday the Green Party objected to the company’s contract with the NHS because they did not “trust” its use of people’s health data and that there had been reports the company is “working on a tool” for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to aid deportations.
He further accused the company of having “actively aided the genocide in Gaza” through its work with the Israeli military.
Palantir has been contacted for comment.
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I know which one has his finger on the pulse and which one is an incompetent appeaser. Starmer is as bad as the tories , if not worse. USA =bad news. Be it the riduculous president or one of their ‘global’ tech companies
Tory party and reform are bought and paid for. They are already in trumps pocket.
starmer is weak but brexit did the damage.
The Greens in England could well become a significant force by 2029. There needs to be a strong party on the left and centre left. Labour have drifted to far to the right trying to appease Reform voters and the LibDems may well have peaked.