Trump’s Ukraine call with Putin leaves UK sounding at odds with reality

Same table, parallel realities: the UK defence secretary, John Healey (foreground), and his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, at a Nato meeting in Brussels on Thursday. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s incendiary call with Vladimir Putin, UK ministers and officials have had to do some extraordinary contortions.

There is no greater priority in the UK’s foreign policy than keeping the volatile occupant of the White House on side. And that has meant over the past 24 hours that some pronouncements by the British government have seemed at odds with reality.