Well, well, well. President-elect Donald Trump may have snubbed Sir Keir Starmer and missed off the new US ambassador Peter Mandelson when he was sending out his inauguration invites but there is one Labour figure who has been deemed privileged enough to make the cut. Steerpike can reveal that Lord Maurice Glasman is currently making his way to DC after being personally invited to the ceremony by the Trump team. How very interesting…
The Labour peer and author of Blue Labour is, Mr S understands, heading out to the presidential inauguration – and appears to be the only Labour figure to have been expressly invited by the president’s top team, as both the Prime Minister and the British Ambassador to the US missed out on an invitation to the event.
Glasman has long had an understanding of the working class vote – and why Trump has cut through. The founder of the Blue Labour campaign group, Glasman has long advocated for the party to make a return to its core principles. The political theorist has criticised Labour for abandoning blue-collar workers and blasted the party for becoming too middle class.
Indeed, there are parallels between his vision for Labour and new vice president JD Vance’s aim for Trump’s second term to focus on the working class. Glasman also may be the only Labour politician in the country trying not to be incredibly rude about the president-elect. Instead, the peer has even gone so far as to suggest Trump could be good for America, while Vance is thought to be an admirer of his work.
Could Glasman help his Labour comrades with Team Trump? Mandelson and Starmer could do with a hand. When the incoming president’s allies heard about the peer’s appointment to the UK ambassador role, GOP strategist Chris LaCivita took to Twitter to fume that Mandelson was an ‘absolute moron’ adding that he should ‘stay home’. Clearly Lord Glasman has been lucky enough to avoid the same treatment, eh?
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