Keir Starmer? Is he a serial killer? What happened when the Mail asked New Yorkers if the

Sir Keir Starmer is working hard to cosy up to Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

But on the streets of America, few people even know who the Prime Minister is.

A snap survey found barely eight per cent of New York residents know who Sir Keir is.

A Mail reporter on the streets of Manhattan yesterday asked 100 people whether they had ever heard of the Prime Minister and only eight people successfully identified him – but two of them were British tourists, and another was from Australia.

The others were either clueless or incorrectly guessed he was a TV star or even a ‘serial killer’.

The poll comes after a Trump ally told the Mail on Sunday ‘no one [in the US] knows’ who Sir Keir is. ‘Keir who? Ask most Americans in the street,’ the ally said.

‘I have no idea,’ said 19-year-old Eli, a New York resident. ‘A serial killer?’

‘I don’t care about who that is,’ 24-year-old John, from Atlanta, Georgia, said. ‘I thought it was Boris Johnson.’

A snap survey found barely eight per cent of New York residents know who Sir Keir (pictured at the Capitol Building in Washington DC in July last year) is

President-elect Donald Trump at a rally in Washington DC before his inauguration today

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Another person said: ‘We have too many of our own problems to know who that is.’

Jane, 20, from New York, correctly guessed that Sir Keir was British as she asked: ‘Is he an advocate or something of Brexit?’

Another Manhattan resident said: ‘I’ve definitely seen him on TV. He’s definitely an actor but I don’t know what he’s in.’

Some respondents had a loose idea, including one who doubtfully said: ‘Yes…. is he the president of some European or Scandinavian country or something?’

Charlie Clark, 24, from the UK, described Starmer as being ‘sort of… limp’.

The Prime Minister’s relationship with Mr Trump is already strained after a string of senior Labour figures made disparaging remarks about him in the past.

The Labour Mayor of London, recently knighted Sir Sadiq Khan, said in a column for the Observer yesterday that Mr Trump’s election is part of ‘resurgent fascism haunting the West’.

He said: ‘The hard-right and far-right are on the march. These are deeply worrying times, especially if you’re a member of a minority community.’

Downing Street were forced to distance themselves yesterday, with Cabinet Minister Darren Jones saying: ‘I don’t agree with it. I speak on behalf of the government, and we don’t agree with it.’

Jane, 20, from New York, correctly guessed that Sir Keir (pictured in Poland last week) was British as she asked: ‘Is he an advocate or something of Brexit?’

Sir Sadiq Khan (pictured in September at Labour conference in Liverpool) said in a column for the Observer that Mr Trump’s election is part of ‘resurgent fascism haunting the West’

Just two years go, the Prime Minister himself attacked the Conservative Party by saying: ‘These aren’t Churchill’s Tories any more.

‘If anything, they behave more and more like Donald Trump. They look at the politics of America and want to bring that here.’

Health Secretary West Streeting branded Mr Trump an ‘odious, sad little man’, while Energy Secretary Ed Miliband suggested the UK should not share values with a ‘racist, misogynistic, self-confessed groper.’

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in 2018: ‘Trump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath, he is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of Western progress for so long.’

Labour have since softened their gone, however, with Sir Keir and his senior ministers striking a more diplomatic and conciliatory tone since Mr Trump’s election victory.