Starmer picks a side when asked about Carney's Davos speech: 'I’m a British pragmatist applying common sense'

Keir Starmer appears to have picked a side, although diplomatically, when asked if he agreed with Mark Carney’s Davos speech.

Starmer was asked by reporters during his flight to Beijing on Wednesday if he agreed with the Canadian prime minister asking for the “middle powers” to band together during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. Carney also spoke about a “rupture in the world order” and how the “great powers” were acting “without restraint.”

“I’m a pragmatist, a British pragmatist applying common sense,” The Independent reports Starmer as saying. The British prime minister didn’t pick between countries but added: “I’m pleased that we have a good relationship with the U.S. on defence, security, intelligence and on trade and prosperity, and it’s very important that we maintain that good relationship.”

The ripple effect of Carney’s speech has been felt worldwide, with world leaders praising the Canadian prime minister. It has also ramped up pressure and criticism from the U.S. administration. Here’s all that’s happened since Carney took the stage.

Carney took the world stage in Davos to deliver a striking but also his starkest speech yet. The speech came the same day U.S. President Donald Trump shared a doctored map showing Canada and other countries under the U.S. flag . Without naming names, the prime minister urged countries to speak out against bullies and “hegemons.”

“Today I will talk about the breakdown of the world order, about the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the superpowers is not subject to any constraints,” Carney said , beginning his speech in French.

He further declared that the old, rules-based order is dead and isn’t coming back.

A few days after Carney’s speech, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum praised Carney’s words at Davos. “(It was a) very good speech by Carney, by Prime Minister Carney, I don’t know if you heard it,” Mexico News Daily reported Sheinbaum as saying. “(It was) very much in tune with the current times.”

The Postmedia-Leger poll taken Jan. 23–26 showed how Carney’s speech and also his trip to China before that swung voter support in the party’s favour in the country. According to the poll, nearly half of Canadians now say they would likely vote Liberal if a federal election were held today.

— More to come

• Read the full text of Mark Carney's Davos speech
• Pierre Poilievre: Carney's Davos speech highlights that it is Liberal rhetoric that doesn't match reality

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.