Thursday, February 27, 2025

Keir Starmer is in the White House. He arrived in a black monster truck with US and UK flags on the front half an hour ago. Donald Trump, who was waiting for him at the door, shook his hand and put a hand on his shoulder. 

The president gave a thumbs-up to waiting journalists, one of whom shouted, "Can you get a peace deal in Ukraine?"

Trump said: "Yes we will."

The journalist then shouted: "Prime minister, will you get a backstop?"

But Starmer and Trump had already started to walk in. 

We are expecting to see them in the Oval Office briefly before they have a working lunch – at which Starmer will be joined by David Lammy, the foreign secretary, and Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador, who walked into the White House a few minutes later. 

Then there will be a Trump-Starmer joint news conference at some time after 7pm British time. Follow the latest here. 

Written by John Rentoul

What do former cabinet ministers Gillian Keegan, Sajid Javid and Arthur Balfour have in common?

Answer at the bottom of today's email 

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A look back at the week in Westminster

When Donald Trump called the tune

In the end, Donald Trump appeared to have little effect on the result of the German election, but Friedrich Merz, who is expected to be the new chancellor, spoke about Europe's need for "independence" from the US. 

It felt as if the US president was a 24th member of the British cabinet on Tuesday, though, as it signed off Keir Starmer's decision to switch 0.2 per cent of national income from foreign aid to defence. 

So far there have been no reports from that cabinet meeting of any opposition to that decision, although Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, is said to have "raised concerns". 

In fact, the response from the wider Labour Party has been muted so far – with some anonymous MPs even praising the increase in defence spending as Starmer's "Falklands moment". 

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Quiz answer: Their first names and surnames end in the same pair of letters

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