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Prime minister Keir Starmer said that the UK and US had renewed their “special relationship for a new era” during president Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain, as £250bn ($338bn) of investment has been pledged between companies from both countries.
Starmer made the comments in a press conference alongside Trump on Thursday, capping off the US president’s state visit to the UK this week.
“This historic second state visit is a moment to celebrate the unique bond between our two countries,” said Starmer. “But today, we’ve gone far beyond that, we’ve renewed the special relationship for a new era.”
“The United Kingdom and the United States stand together today as first partners on defence, first partners in trade, with the groundbreaking deal we struck in May and now with the new agreement that we’ve just signed this afternoon, when confirming our status as the first partners in science and technology, ready to define this century together just as we did the last,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trump said that the countries’ “enduring connection is why I was thrilled that the United Kingdom was the very first country with which we made a historic trade deal and a very good trade deal”, calling Starmer a “tough negotiator”.
Read more: The UK companies partnering with US big tech
Trump said the Tech Prosperity Deal announced by the UK and US on Tuesday was “one of a kind”. He said it would ensure the US and UK “lead the next great technological revolution side-by-side”.
The landmark tech deal came as several major US and UK companies pledged transatlantic investments. Earlier on Thursday at a state visit business event, Starmer said that £250bn was “flowing both ways across the Atlantic”.
US companies have pledged £150bn worth of investment in Britain during Trump’s state visit, in a package of deals set to create more than 7,600 jobs across the UK.
A number of tech giants, including Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL), had already announced billions of pounds of investment in the UK earlier this week.
New investment pledges announced on Wednesday included £100bn over the next decade from private equity giant Blackstone, £3.9bn from investment firm Prologis (PLD) and £1.5bn from data software platform company Palantir (PLTR).
The UK government said this marked the largest investment package ever associated with a visit of its kind, surpassing previous records set by the Chinese and Korean state visits in 2015 and 2023 respectively.
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