You’d be forgiven for missing it in the UK media but Starmer’s Ukraine plan has now almost completely collapsed. Despite the fact it was announced with unparalleled levels of fawning praise during the lobby’s jaunt to DC earlier this month…
Steve Witkoff – US Special Envoy to the Middle East – and a close friend and confidant of the President, said of the plan over the weekend:
“I think it’s a combination of a posture and a pose and a combination of also being simplistic… I think there’s this sort of notion of, we’ve all got to be like Winston Churchill, the Russians are going to march across Europe. I think that’s preposterous by the way, we have something called Nato that we did not have in World War II.”
Witkoff said the best way to work out the peace deal is: “two great leaders [Trump and Putin] figuring out this conflict”. Not the ‘coalition of the willing’ then…
It’s been a tough few weeks for Starmer on Ukraine, who this time last month was being compared to Thatcher:
Two Labour figures from different wings of the party tell me: Keir Starmer’s response to @realDonaldTrump on Ukraine is shaping up to be PM’s “Falklands moment” – when an unpopular Margaret Thatcher turned round her fortunes by a resolute response to an international crisis…..
— Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) February 26, 2025
Life comes at you fast…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”