“I do think the United Kingdom should step up and lead. We have done that historically as a nation, and we need to do it again,” Starmer said after unveiling a four-step plan to guarantee peace in Ukraine.
Starmer is invoking Churchill because what Europe had viewed as a nightmare scenario – fighting Putin without US backing – is no longer just a fever dream.
The West is witnessing a once in a generation shift. No longer can Europe conclude the US shares the trust and values that have bound the two continents together since the end of the Second World War. Barring personality clashes, the fundamentals of a rules-based international order had remained the same ever since.
How team Starmer celebrated his Trump success - and the one outstanding issue
Read MoreBut the rules have been replaced by a Trumpian philosophy which praises the strong over the weak, the rich over the poor and the good-looking over the plain. At its heart is the view – expressed by Trump and his deputy JD Vance on Friday – that Americans have been suckered into accepting unfair trade and paying for foreign wars.
Now the US has become an unpredictable partner, the worst-case scenario is that Trump has switched sides and is forming a new axis of hard power. A secondary interpretation is that Trump wants a series of bilateral relationships based on economics but also personalities. That currently translates to UK and Starmer good, but Canada and Trudeau bad.
“I do not accept that the US is an unreliable ally,” Starmer said. “The US has been a reliable ally to the UK for many, many decades, and continues to be. There are no two countries as closely aligned as our two countries and our defence, our security and intelligence is intertwined in a way no two other countries are.”
But British diplomats will be acutely aware that Windsor Castle, where the King is expected to host Trump at future date, could be the target for protests as the impact of the US ending its foreign aid on spending wreaks havoc across the world’s poorest nations. Expect growing calls to rescind the UK invitation.
“A number indicated today that they wanted to be part of the more forward-looking element,” he said. In Kyiv, they wait anxiously to see.
Trump is not the first American president that has told Europe to step up. But this is the first time in 80 years Europe has taken it seriously. Perhaps it’s time that bust of Winston Churchill left the Oval Office and came home.
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