“Serious, calm, pragmatic, behind-the-scenes diplomacy” is how No 10 has been describing Keir Starmer’s approach to the chaotic world of Donald Trump’s administration.
That may have been how the week started – and tiptoeing around Trump’s volatility has been the hallmark of Starmer’s relationship with the president for a whole year. But the president’s two major digs at Britain, first over the Chagos Islands and then, more seriously, his claim that UK troops did not pull their weight in Afghanistan, have finally provoked Starmer into a furious rebuttal.
