Starmer trembles when asked to condemn Trump's Venezuela coup

In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Keir Starmer looked visibly shaken as he was asked to “condemn” Donald Trump’s blatantly illegal abduction of Nicolás Maduro:

#BBCLauraK to Keir Starmer: "You've been incredibly clear, that Putins attack on a sovereign country, Ukraine, was wrong & ought to be condemned. What about Trumps attack on a sovereign country of Venezuela.. will you condemn that action against a sovereign state? pic.twitter.com/MNuCxmeT21

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) January 4, 2026

Starmer was so shaken this his voice literally trembled towards the end of the clip, suggesting he’s terrified of Donald Trump and the Americans.

The worm is not for turning

In the clip above, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg puts the following to the PM:

you’ve been incredibly clear always that Vladimir Putin’s attack on a sovereign country of Ukraine was wrong and ought to be condemned. What about President Trump’s attack on a sovereign country of Venezuela?

There are all sorts of horrors that we know about President Maduro’s government, but for America to strike that country and then capture its leader; that’s an action against the sovereign state that surely flies in the face of international law?

Indeed.

It’s almost as if this is the most obvious fact in the world, isn’t it?

Kuenssberg continued:

We know those facts. President Trump, the White House has said that they captured Maduro and they struck his country. So there’s a lot we don’t know, but we do know that.

So will you condemn that action against the sovereign state?

Responding to her, Starmer looked unnerved:

Well I want to get all the material facts together and we simply haven’t got the full picture at the moment. It’s fast-moving and we need to piece that together.

Did no one tell him that dealing with ‘fast-moving’ events was part of the job?

Generally politicians are quite good at talking at length to give the impression that they answered the question. Starmer is not good at this, which is why the rest of his response was full of clumsy repetition and copious ‘umms’ (emphasis added):

I then need to speak to president Trump; I need to speak to our allies, umm, but I don’t shy away from this. I’ve been a lifelong advocate of international law, and the importance of compliance with international law, but, umm, I want to ensure that i’ve got all the facts at my disposal, umm, and we haven’t got that at the moment, umm, and we need to get that before we, umm, come to a decision about , umm, the consequences in relation to the actions that have been taken.

The ‘umms’ we highlighted are the instances where you can best hear his voice trembling.

If you weren’t reassured before this interview, you certainly won’t be now.

International law and Starmer

As the Peace & Justice Project highlighted, Starmer has confidently weighed in on international law in the past:

In October 2023, Keir Starmer went on live TV and proudly stated that he believed that Israel had the right to withhold food, water and aid from the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza.

Today, he refused to even once acknowledge the kidnap of Nicolas Maduro and US occupation of… https://t.co/ZLkOcJkPDk

— Peace & Justice Project (@corbyn_project) January 3, 2026

Accordingly, it’s unsurprising that people are saying Starmer has been a fraud throughout his career:

It’s really important to highlight Starmer is one of the most eminent human rights lawyers in the world. In the world.

It’s pretty clear now that he never believed in any of it, or cared, it’s just this stuff was high status in the 1990s. https://t.co/grNBtNq1HB

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) January 3, 2026

As we reported in 2020, Starmer has a long history of working within the system to subvert the law (in our opinion). As such, we’re not surprised to see him carrying water for a blatantly criminal act.

What is surprising is just how visibly terrified he is of Donald Trump.

How on Earth did a man this cowardly rise all the way to the top?

Featured image via Laura Kuenssberg

Comments 1

Taxiarch says:

6 months ago

“How on Earth did a man this cowardly rise all the way to the top?”
Widespread suspicion that was the reason he was selected; cowardice makes one malleable. He was also accomplished, as a ‘pivoter’, holding no principal beyond personal ambition and holding no ideological position that conflicted with the interests of his backers. The backers already had control of the party machine and most MPs, but needed someone to mollify the new 2016 power bloc (the Corbyn membership). The potential ‘continuity-Corbyn’ candidates were eliminated in advance, the journalists (including and notably including Kuenssberg) delivered the 2019 election, isolating and demoralising the party membership. Johnstone, Truss and Sunak appeared to self implode and the placeholder most unexpectedly found himself at the Kings First Minister.
TLDR: Wrong man, right time, right place.. Two out of three ain’t bad.