Sir Keir Starmer has been warned by Labor MPs against “outsourcing” foreign policy Nigel Farage after Lord Mandelson said he could be a ‘beachhead’ for Donald Trump And Elon Musk.

A Labor MP said it would be ‘insane’ to use the Reform United Kingdom leader as an intermediary with the new US president, while another said the idea was “barely credible”.

Tuesday, Mandelson – who is considered the favorite The next UK ambassador to the United States – said the government should consider using Farage’s friendship with Trump to smooth relations with the Republican, as well as President-elect ally Musk.

Appearing on a Times Radio podcast, the former business secretary described Farage as an “airhead, both for President Trump and for Elon Musk and others”.

Arguing that the UK should “swallow (its) pride” and repair relations with the Tesla boss and find out who ( Musk ‘s president ) ) other British friends are. . . (and use them as a) bridge.”

Of Farage, he said: “You can’t ignore him, he’s an elected MP. He is a public figure.

He added: “The national interest is served in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. »

The comments sparked a backlash among Labor MPs.

A backbencher said I: “We should not entrust foreign policy to Nigel Farage. This is absolutely insane. We know that on a large number of issues there are considerable differences.”

Pointing to Farage’s comments over the summer in which he suggested the West had “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the MP said: “I don’t see how you can achieve a such arrangement (with Farage) when you disagree on the most important security issues. question of politics. You probably don’t agree on trade. You probably do not agree on a stronger trade partnership with the EU, which seems essential to me. I just think it’s a failure.

However, the MP was more in favor of rebuilding relations with Musk. The richest man in the world has repeatedly clashed with the Starmer government, notably when he claimed on X that civil war in Britain was ‘inevitable’ during summer’s anti-immigration riots.

The MP said: “Regarding Musk, I think we need to be pragmatic. Obviously I don’t agree with everything he says…I have a lot of issues with the way this he changed Twitter since he bought it. But of course you have to engage with it. Like it or not, he is also a very successful businessman who works within some of the biggest companies in the world, including those that will actually help us in the green transition.

A second Labor MP was equally dismissive of Starmer using Farage, calling him “crazy”.

“The idea that we could mitigate the worst excesses of Donald Trump by sending someone who shares his policies is barely credible,” they said.

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The MP also said Labor could not trust the Reform leader. “You wouldn’t trust him as much as you might throw him away,” they said.

They suggested Mandelson’s comments reflected his love of being in the spotlight.

“Peter is someone who has for a very long time wanted to be not only in the news, but in the news,” they said. “I think the maneuvers he’s doing now are clearly an extension of that.”

A third Labor MP, Stella Creasy, was also skeptical of the idea of ​​using Farage. When asked about Mandelson’s comments on Politics Live on Wednesday, she said that Clacton MP should focus on representing his constituents.

“I used to go to Clacton a lot when I was a kid. Clacton has great entertainment, but I think it requires representation and political engagement and I’m pretty old-fashioned as it is,” she said.

Asked about Mandelson’s comments at a press conference at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Starmer said he had “no comment” to make on the “appointments”.

Farage has meanwhile said he “might disagree with Mandelson on his policies, but he is a very intelligent man”.

As for whether relations should be improved with Musk, Creasy said that would involve the X boss asking questions about how to make social media safer for children as well as the impact of this improvement. misinformation about its platform played during the riots.

The Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee invited Musk to testify before MPs about “false and harmful content” on social media.

Creasy said: “I really hope he comes and speaks to the science and technology committee.

“What happened over the summer was catastrophic. Many of us have faced this in our constituencies, seen the damage that it was causing, and seen how Twitter and social media were used to fuel this and fuel this panic.

“If he says he won’t have this conversation, are we saying it doesn’t matter anymore? »