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Sir Keir Starmer gave Donald Trump a friendly pat on the shoulder as he arrived at the White House for crunch talks on Ukraine on Thursday, 27 February.The UK prime minister is visiting Washington to push the reluctant US president to provide a US “backstop” to prevent the Russian leader from launching a fresh assault on Ukraine after any peace deal.Mr Trump has said he would not provide security guarantees “beyond very much”, insisting it was for Europeans to protect Ukraine.The Republican, who has launched efforts with Russia to find a quick peace deal to end the invasion, has falsely accused Volodymyr Zelensky of being a “dictator” and suggested the Ukrainian leader was to blame for starting the war. More

Keir Starmer took a playful dig at Elon Musk while speaking at the UK Embassy in Washington DC on the eve of his meeting with US President Donald Trump on 27 February.“We share the view that our best days lie ahead.  And, you know, taking out a chainsaw isn’t quite my style.” said Sir Keir. “But we are stripping away red tape and bureaucracy. We are reforming permitting, getting things built, reducing barriers to investment and growth.”The prime minister’s comments followed Elon Musk’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., on 20 February, where he waved a blinged-out chainsaw around on stage. More

Donald Trump may have a say over the UK’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, David Lammy admitted on Wednesday, 26 February.Speaking to Robert Peston, the UK foreign secretary confirmed that if the US president isn’t happy with the deal then it “will not go forward.””We have a shared military and intelligence interest with the United States… they’ve got to be happy with the deal or there is no deal,” Mr Lammy added.The UK is in talks to hand control of the archipelago back to Mauritius as part of a deal rumoured to be worth £9bn. More

Sir Keir Starmer dismissed an accusation he is “Nigel Farage in disguise” over his plans to slash the foreign aid budget to hike defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP to counter “tyrants” like Vladimir Putin.Asked whether he was the Reform UK leader “in disguise” because of the similarities in his approach to that of the opposition party’s policy platform, Sir Keir told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, 25 February: “Nigel Farage didn’t even turn up to the debate in Parliament today. Nigel Farage is fawning over Putin.”Mr Farage has previously said he “disliked [Putin] as a person, but admired him as a political operator because he’s managed to take control of running Russia.” More