Think of it as more a lap of honour. We’d all seen the pictures. A grateful world receives Keir Starmer at the Nato summit in Washington. A saviour in their midst. A week later European leaders bask in the summer heat at Blenheim. An early evening tryst with Emmanuel Macron on a bed of rose petals. All was for the best in the best of all possible worlds. More or less.
But needs must. Call it a formality. Call it a courtesy. Either way on Monday afternoon the prime minister was in the House of Commons to tell MPs all about how brilliant he had been at Nato and the European Political Community. How it had been very heaven to be alive in that moment. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. It was days like these that made the job all worthwhile. Shooting the breeze with the great and the good.
