Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to stand up to Donald Trump’s “torrent of lies” when he visits the United States next week, as the president accused Britain of “doing nothing” to end the war in Ukraine.
As global outrage over the US president’s chaotic position on the conflict grows, the prime minister has been issued a stark warning over the state of the transatlantic alliance and has been urged to challenge the president in the “strongest possible terms” when he sits down with him on US soil.
It comes after Mr Trump was widely condemned for wrongly claiming that Kyiv started the war and for describing Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator”. In his latest intervention, the US president claimed “nobody’s done anything” to end the war, after the US this week began peace talks with Russia that excluded Ukraine.
Asked about next week’s visits by French president Emmanuel Macron and Sir Keir to Washington, Mr Trump told Fox News: “They didn’t do anything either [to end the war]. The war’s going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing.”
While the prime minister has expressed solidarity with Mr Zelensky as "Ukraine's democratically elected leader", he has been urged to go further when he comes face to face with Mr Trump next week.
“It's time for Starmer to stand up for Britain and our allies in Europe”, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told The Independent.
Warning that Mr Trump’s words “could have been written in Moscow”, Sir Ed added: “Trump accusing Ukraine of being responsible for the war must be where we draw the line.”
Meanwhile, former Tory defence secretary Sir Gavin Williamson said that “we cannot let fake news and a false narrative become accepted”.
“That has to be rebuffed at every moment. And if that causes some people offence, well, that's their problem”, he told The Independent.
Their comments come amid warnings from former Tony Blair spin doctor Alastair Campbell that Mr Trump’s attraction to Vladimir Putin is “born of his desire to be every bit as rich, unchecked and authoritarian”.
Mr Trump is a “pathological liar, a narcissist” and is “concerned only about himself, his wealth and his power”, Mr Campbell wrote in The Independent on Friday. He also accused the US president of unleashing a “torrent of lies” about the Ukraine war.
However, Jack Straw, who served as Labour home secretary from 1997 to 2001 and foreign secretary from 2001 to 2006, warned the government against “virtue signalling” when it comes to Mr Trump.
He said Britain should build on the existing relationships between cabinet ministers and the Republican administration, rather than posturing.
“[Trump] is the single most powerful individual in the world. We’ve got to work round that. And I should think the prime minister and the foreign secretary understand that they’ve got to work around that”, he told The Independent.
It comes amid growing pessimism over the state of the transatlantic alliance and concern over the Republican’s commitment to defending Europe.
Sir Ed urged the prime minister to accept that Mr Trump is “no longer a reliable partner in Ukraine or Europe’s defence”, calling for Britain to boost defence spending beyond 2.5 per cent of GDP.
Meanwhile, Sir Vince Cable, former Lib Dem leader and business secretary under the coalition government, warned that the US “in many ways is a bigger threat to [Britain] than traditional threats”, pointing to Mr Trump’s decision to publicly cosy up to Mr Putin.
Sir Vince warned that the US president’s latest remarks have not only put Britain in “an extraordinarily difficult position”, but have also made the Western world “look absolutely ridiculous”. He urged Britain to work more closely with Europe to achieve autonomy on their defence capabilities.
“We've been spending three years giving support to Ukraine, and now suddenly, we’re told we’re on the wrong side”, he said.
There has been growing pressure on the prime minister, who is trying to act as a bridge between Europe and the US, to ensure he does not alienate allies in the EU.
Anand Sundar, of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank, warned that Europeans should “no longer harbour any illusions about the transatlantic relationship, which has been irreparably damaged”.
“The Trump administration is fundamentally at odds with European governments ideologically, and no amount of coddling will change that.
“So even as they plan Starmer’s trip to DC, the UK government needs to immediately start preparing to defend Ukraine and Europe without the US”, he told The Independent.
While he encouraged the prime minister to appeal to the president in private, Mr Sundar reminded Sir Keir that Britain’s “geopolitical future will be decided in Ukraine and in Europe, not across the Atlantic”.
“This is where Starmer should look for allies”, he added.
The warnings come just days after European nations met in Paris in a scramble to boost their defence spending after pressure from the US, and to respond to Mr Trump’s rapidly shifting position on the Ukraine war.
American and Russian officials, meanwhile, met in Saudi Arabia for initial talks on ending the conflict, without any Ukrainian representation.
Sir Keir, who attended Monday’s Paris meeting, has repeatedly stressed that there can be “no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine”.
He has called for the US to provide a security “backstop” to any peace agreement, as well as proposing sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine as part of a deal. However, other European nations have resisted discussing the possibility.
While Mr Trump has said he is “all for” the promise to put British troops in Ukraine, but the US does not need to deploy peacekeeping troops as “we’re very far away”.
