Keir Starmer disrupts family holiday for second year in a row for Donald Trump summit
Keir Starmer was forced to disrupt his family holiday for the second summer in a row so he could dash to Washington DC for crisis talks.
The PM was with his loved ones in Scotland on Saturday when Donald Trump invited him, Volodymyr Zelensky and seven other European ministers to the White House just 48 hours later. It is the second summer in a row Mr Starmer has had to set his plans aside, with widespread rioting last year meaning he could not jet off with his wife Victoria and children.
Labour minister Torsten Bell branded it an "occupational hazard" for Prime Ministers to have to change their holiday plans when asked if Mr Starmer was exhausted. He told Sky News: "The Prime Minister is making a real difference in terms of these negotiations. It was absolutely the right thing to be in Washington.
"I t's really important progress that's been made, but particularly in the US involvement in those security guarantees, that's an absolute precursor to a long lasting settlement to this conflict we all want to see.
"And I want to see a Prime Minister that's playing his part in making that happen. And that's what you've seen him do actually, month after month. It's not just about the summer."
The Pensions Minister told host Wilf Frost: "And it is an occupational hazard for prime ministers that holidays are interrupted. You'll have been covering that for years.
"I've been around British politics enough to have seen that happen year after year. I want the Prime Minister to have a rest, but I'm afraid what we want to do is make sure that we're addressing these big issues and that in this summer means making sure we get those security guarantees in Ukraine."
Mr Starmer arrived in Scotland on Saturday morning, The Times reports, but was very quickly called into diplomatic talks with world leaders. During this chat the US President extended an invitation to those on the call.
No10 did not confirm that the PM would be attending until Sunday afternoon. He was picked up from Glasgow shortly after 8am and taken to Washington DC for the White House summit.
He was one of several European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian PM Georgia Meloni and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in attendance.
Mr Trump said he spoke directly with Vladimir Putin to begin planning a meeting between the Russian leader and Mr Zelensky. He also said Moscow will "accept" multinational efforts to guarantee Ukraine's security.
Mr Starmer described the talks as "good and constructive", adding: "There was a real sense of unity between the European leaders that were there, and president Trump and president Zelensky". The Prime Minister highlighted "two material outcomes" from the talks, firstly that the coalition of the willing "will now work with the US" on security guarantees.
"That's really important for security in Ukraine, for security in Europe, and for security in the UK," he said. "The other material outcome was the agreement that there will now be a bilateral agreement between president Putin and president Zelensky, that was after a phone call between president Trump and president Putin during the course of this afternoon, followed by a trilateral which will then add in president Trump.
"That is a recognition of the principle that on some of these issues, whether it's territory or the exchange of prisoners, or the very serious issue of the return of children, that is something where Ukraine must be at the table.
"These were the two outcomes that were the most important coming out of today. They're positive outcomes, there was a real sense of unity. We've made real progress today."
Posting on his Truth Social platform after the meeting, Mr Trump also described the talks as "very good", adding: "During the meeting we discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, which guarantees would be provided by the various European countries, with a coordination with the United States of America.
"Everyone is happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia /Ukraine. At the conclusion of the meetings, I called president Putin and began arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between president Putin and president Zelensky.
"After the meeting takes place, we will have a trilat which would be the two presidents plus myself."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
6 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: ‘Coalition of the willing' talks held as Russia stalls
Work is under way on the military component of security guarantees for Ukraine that European leaders and Donald Trump have committed to if there is a peace deal. A small group of military leaders held discussions in Washington to work out options, a western official told Reuters on Wednesday, shortly after a bigger virtual meeting wrapped up. Gen Dan Caine, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, held the talks which also involved around half a dozen other Nato defence chiefs. The chair of the Nato military committee, Adm Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, called it a 'great, candid discussion … Priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace.' As the 'coalition of the willing' began to take on a preliminary shape, Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine was also working on a plan with its allies on how to proceed 'in case the Russian side continues to prolong the war and disrupt agreements on bilateral and trilateral formats of leaders' meetings.' Yermak also said that 'our teams, above all the military, have already begun active work on the military component of security guarantees'. Russia meanwhile continued to display its apparent intention to delay a possible meeting between Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy, writes Pjotr Sauer. Sergei Lavrov, Putin's foreign minister, complained on Wednesday that Moscow should be included in any talks on Ukraine's security guarantees: 'To discuss security guarantees seriously without Russia is a road to nowhere.' Russia gave Ukraine a supposed 'security guarantee' under the Budapest memorandum of 1994, which Putin has long since comprehensively violated by attacking Ukraine. Lavrov avoided any direct reference to a possible Putin-Zelenskyy summit and said China, Russia's ally in the war, should be among Ukraine's security guarantors. Kyiv is likely to view that with deep scepticism given that Russia uses equipment and materials from China to attack Ukraine, and that the two countries have vowed to pursue a 'no-limits' partnership. Analysts suggested Putin would probably only meet Zelenskyy to accept a complete Ukrainian capitulation. Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said: 'He has repeatedly stated that such a meeting would only be possible if there were well-prepared grounds, which in practice means Zelenskyy's acceptance of Russia's terms for ending the war.' Drones attacked Kyiv over Wednesday night into Thursday morning as the Ukrainian air force issued a national alert for missile attacks after Russian warplanes took off. Earlier, on Wednesday, at least three people were killed in a Russian artillery attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, local officials said. Another four were wounded. The governor, Vadym Filashkin, said it involved eight strikes from a multiple rocket launch system and targeted a local market. At least 14 people, including a family with three children, were wounded in a Russian attack on Ukraine's northern region of Sumy. A 'massive drone strike' on the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa injured one person and caused a large fire at a fuel and energy facility, Ukraine's state emergency service said on Wednesday. Ukrainian drone forces meanwhile scored a major hit on the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia's Rostov region where fires and explosions were captured on video. A Russian military drone exploded in Polish farmland on Wednesday, blowing the windows out of houses and igniting a furious response from authorities. 'Once again, we are facing a provocation from the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone,' said Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Polish defence minister. The explosion was in a cornfield near the village of Osiny about 100km (60 miles) from Warsaw and near the borders with Ukraine and Russian-allied Belarus. Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, condemned 'a new violation of our airspace from the east … The foreign ministry will protest to the perpetrator of this violation.' It was believed to be a Russian drone type called Gerbera, which is often used as a decoy in attacks against Ukraine. Poland's Gen Dariusz Malinowski said the aircraft 'was a decoy drone, which was not armed but carried a self-destruct warhead'. Russian drones and missiles have crossed into the airspace of Nato members Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania several times in the three and a half years since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The latest incident comes less than a month after a Russian military drone flew into Lithuania from Belarus.
The Independent
36 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump has bought up $100 million in bonds from biggest companies including T-Mobile and Meta since taking office
Since taking office, Donald Trump has bought at least $103 million worth of bonds, including debt issued by corporations that could be impacted by federal policy, like T-Mobile, Meta, and Home Depot, according to government financial disclosures. According to the August 12 filing with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the president made nearly 700 bond purchases while in the White House, investing in bonds not only from name-brand companies but obscure local governments and utilities districts. The disclosures, obtained by Bloomberg, do not list the exact size of the purchases, but they do show that the president bought between $500,000 and $1,000,000 in bonds from T-Mobile and Home Depot in February, as well as debt worth between $250,000 and $500,000 from Facebook parent Meta. Meta, alongside a variety of other big names in the tech world, donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund. A White House official told Reuters that Trump and his family had no role in managing the purchases, which were carried out by a third-party financial institution. The official added that federal ethics officials certified the purchases as in compliance with applicable laws. Critics have alleged that Trump, a billionaire businessman and TV personality before becoming president, has continued highly lucrative activities while holding office. Under federal ethics laws, presidents are not required to divest assets that might pose a conflict of interest, but most have done so anyway since the late 1970s, moving their assets into blind trusts managed by independent monitors. Trump is the first president not to have done so since 1978, and his business empire is held in a trust managed by his two sons. The Republican's net worth has more than doubled since the final year of his first term, and since retaking office, the president has continued to promote his business interests, including by visiting a new Trump golf course in Scotland and hosting top investors in his cryptocurrency business for a tour of the White House in May. On average, the president has visited one of his properties roughly once every other day since taking office, and has promoted his businesses at least 60 times, according to the watchdog group Citizens for Ethics in Washington. The president's sons, meanwhile, have pursued lucrative deals in the crypto world alongside Zach Witkoff, son of U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. A fund linked to the United Arab Emirates government, a U.S. ally, used $2 billion in the Trump family's World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency to invest in a crypto exchange. The Trump sons have also inked multiple business deals in the Middle Eas t since their father took office, including a Trump branded golf course in Qatar partially backed by the country's sovereign wealth fund.
Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
This hotel crisis is Labour's wake-up call. But will they heed it?: ALAN MENDOZA
As a local councillor, I have no doubt that Epping Forest District Council's extraordinary victory in the High Court on Tuesday will inspire a flood of copycat legal actions that could completely unravel Labour's policy on hotel rooms for migrants. The social and financial cost of providing temporary accommodation, whether for illegal migrants or those granted asylum and then declared homeless, is the biggest concern of many councils.
