After meeting Trump, Albanese veers left to progressive summit in UK

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London: A who’s who of the political left will welcome Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to a leadership summit in London that features key critics of US President Donald Trump, in a show of force for progressive policies.

Albanese will join fellow prime ministers including Mark Carney of Canada, Pedro Sanchez of Spain and Kristrun Frostadottir of Iceland at the conference alongside some of Trump’s most prominent American rivals.

Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney speaking with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Two-State Solution Conference in the United Nations General Assembly.

Speakers will include senior Democrats such as Illinois Governor Jay “JB” Pritzker and former US transport secretary Pete Buttigieg, both named as possible candidates to challenge Trump’s political movement at the presidential election in 2028.

The conference comes days after Albanese met Trump in New York and secured formal talks to be held in Washington DC next month, easing months of doubt about the strength of the security alliance and the personal relationship between the leaders.

Albanese heads to London for formal talks with British counterpart Sir Keir Starmer and a meeting with King Charles this weekend, before he speaks at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool – a rare move for an Australian leader.

The formal talks with Starmer will limit the time Albanese can spend at the Global Progress Action Summit in London, where leaders and policy advocates from 40 countries are gathering to chart a course for progressive politics.

British Prime Minister Starmer and Anthony Albanese at the G7 summit in Canada in June.

Carney has announced he will meet Albanese as well as others when he visits the UK on Friday and Saturday, overlapping with the Australian leader’s visit. They met in June when Carney hosted the G7 summit in Alberta.

The progressive summit is organised by Labour Together, a key group within the Labour Party that backs Starmer, along with the Centre for American Progress Action Fund in the US and the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK.

“The focus will be on national security, growth that works for working people, migration in an age of global movement, and building fair societies based on solidarity and reciprocity,” the organisers said.

As well as convening leaders from progressive governments, the event will hear from former prime ministers including Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand and Magdalena Andersson of Sweden.

Senior British ministers due to attend include Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Defence Secretary John Healey.

Albanese has strong contacts in the Labour Party after years of informal talks with leaders including Starmer, and his success at the May federal election is likely to hold lessons them when they have lost support in the polls under pressure from the Conservatives and Reform UK.

The welcome from the political left will contrast with the cooler response to Albanese from parts of the Trump administration, where officials want him to lift defence spending and have put the AUKUS submarine pact under review.

Trump used his address to the United Nations on Tuesday to dismiss climate change as a “con job” and warn leaders they were ruining their countries with high migration.

In a sharp contrast with the president, Albanese called climate change an “existential threat” in his address in New York and is seeking support to bring the UN’s annual climate summit to Australia and the Pacific Islands next year.

While Trump strongly criticised the UN and wants staff charged for a failure of an escalator when he was on his way to his address, Albanese is aligned with progressive leaders who back the global forum.

“If the United Nations steps back, we all lose ground,” he said in his address on Wednesday in New York.

“If we give people reason to doubt the value of co-operation, then the risk of conflict becoming the default option grows.

“If we allow any nation to imagine itself outside the rules, or above them, then the sovereignty of every nation is eroded.”

Albanese is believed to be the first sitting Australian prime minister to speak at the Labour conference, which is a major event for the party and the scene of dozens of speaking sessions about progressive politics.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard addressed an event linked to the conference last year. There is a precedent for foreign leaders attending the event; after leaving office, former US President Bill Clinton spoke at the conference in Blackpool in 2002 and Manchester in 2006.