The prime minister wants to keep everyone happy. He has been loath to criticize Trump, has warmed up Britain’s post-Brexit partnership with the European Union, avowedly backed Kyiv and thawed ties with China. At a time of geopolitical upheaval, he is attempting to squeeze Britain into an impossibly tight Venn diagram.

Russia talks on Ukraine hours before a crunch meeting between Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump on Thursday. Starmer had come under pressure to shore up American support for a security "backstop" in Ukraine after a potential end to the war - and after the talks,

If there is a cease-fire without a backstop, it will simply give him the opportunity to wait and to come again,” Keir Starmer warned on the flight to Washington, D.C.