President gives his blessing for PM to act as go-between with Europe leaders

SIR Keir Starmer won White House backing to serve as a leadership bridge between the United States and Europe as the new Prime Minister made clear that there is no lessening in Britain’s multi-billion-pound support for Ukraine.

- Jitendra Joshi

After meeting both US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on the margins of a Nato summit in Washington, the Labour PM was to tell the 32-nation gathering today that the leaders must all send a “clear message” to Vladimir Putin.

Sir Keir stressed to President Zelensky that Ukraine’s armed forces can decide for themselves how to deploy UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, “in accordance with international humanitarian law” and for “defensive purposes”. That does not rule out them using the 155-mile precision-guided weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Asked about the risk of Russian retaliation against Britain, Security Minister Dan Jarvis told Sky News this morning: “Of course, we’ve got to be incredibly careful.”