Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, Iceland Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir, moderator Neera Tanden, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, at the Global Progress Action Summit in London on Friday.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney joined British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the leaders of several other centre-left governments at a conference in London on Friday where much of the discussion revolved around how to tackle the rise of the far-right and deal with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The daylong Global Progress Action Summit focused on a range of issues including immigration, how to regulate artificial intelligence and election strategies for progressive parties. The summit has been organized by a collection of left-leaning groups, including the Center for American Progress, which has ties to past Democratic administrations, and Labour Together, a British think tank that is largely associated with the Labour Party.
Mr. Carney participated in a panel discussion with Mr. Starmer and Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia and Kristrun Frostadottir of Iceland.
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Mr. Starmer, whose Labour government has been struggling after sweeping to power just over a year ago, addressed the rising popularity of the Reform Party in Britain. Led by Nigel Farage, Reform has been leading most opinion polls for months by concentrating largely on policies to control immigration.
Mr. Starmer also noted a large far-right rally that took place in London earlier this month, which attracted around 100,000 people. The message from many in that rally was a “poisonous belief” that “that there is a coming struggle, a defining struggle, a violent struggle for the nation, for all our nations,” Mr. Starmer told the audience. “And you don’t have to be a great historian to know where that kind of poison ends up.”
He added that Britain was at a crossroads. “The battle of our times is between patriotic national renewal under a Labour government, versus something which is turning into a toxic divide,” he said. “There’s a battle for the soul of this country now as to what sort of country do we want to be, because that toxic divide, that decline with Reform, is built on a sense of grievance.”
Mr. Starmer and Mr. Carney during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 2025 Global Progress Action Summit on Friday in London.WPA Pool/Getty Images
In a morning speech to the conference, Mr. Starmer said he did not accept the argument that the ideas of the centre-left parties were dying out. “But I do accept that it is now time for social democrats to confront directly some of the challenges and some of the lies, frankly, that have taken root in our societies,” he said.
Mr. Carney said the Liberals won the election last April by addressing the growing unease Canadians felt on a range of issues.
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“Our election and what Canadians were feeling, like in many electorates but in a slightly different way, was a sense of loss of control. That’s what happens when inflation is too high, that’s what happens when there is a sense that migration isn’t being adequately managed,” he said. “The most sharp version of this was, of course, the tariff relationship with the United States.”
He highlighted his government’s priorities of fighting the tariffs, supporting workers and building the economy. “People want and deserve that positive agenda, it’s not engaging on the turf of the more negative agenda.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney participated in a panel at the Global Progress Action Summit in London. He joined the prime ministers of the U.K., Australia and Iceland on stage for a discussion that touched on how to keep a positive agenda.
The Canadian Press
Mr. Carney also addressed the growing insecurity around the world, citing the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and the fracturing of global trade. “What we’re living through, all of us, is not a transition, it’s a rupture. It’s a big change in the trading system; we’re not going back. Nostalgia is not a strategy. And there is big change in geopolitical risk.”
Outside the conference, Mr. Carney spent much of the day holding one-on-one meetings with Mr. Starmer and other leaders who were attending the gathering, including Mr. Albanese, Ms. Frostadottir and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
He and Mr. Starmer also exchanged Canada and England rugby jerseys, in honour of the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Top-ranked England takes on world No. 2 Canada in the final on Saturday at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham. It’s unclear if both leaders will attend the game.
Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Mr. Carney’s recent travels to New York and London as an “illusion tour.” In a post on X, Mr. Poilievre mocked Mr. Carney’s comments that the trips were “building on momentum” and working “in the spirit of friendship.”
“But he won’t get the UK’s barriers to Canadian beef and pork dropped, or bring home ANYTHING for our workers,” Mr. Poilievre added.