Keir Starmer was in buoyant mood as he arrived at Washington’s Andrews Air Base last night to fly home from a crunch trip to the White House which had gone far better than feared.
‘I’m happy,’ he told reporters with a grin, as he boarded his flight home for the next leg of his frantic diplomatic push to shore up support for Ukraine. Air crew ran out of glasses after relieved aides ordered ‘two drinks each’ to celebrate.
Twenty-four hours earlier, the PM and his team had been a picture of tension as they prepared for talks with the capricious US President.
At a glitzy party at the British Ambassador’s residence in Washington on Wednesday night, one official confided that ministers had ‘no idea’ how the high stakes meeting with Mr Trump would go.
‘He’s completely unpredictable,’ the source said. ‘There is endless preparation and wargaming going on; we are biting our tongues to be nice to him; but there is no way of knowing whether any of that will placate him or we will just find him in hostile mode and the whole thing will be an embarrassing disaster.’
But last night the stress had evaporated after the tactic of sucking up to Mr Trump at every turn paid off handsomely. Not only did the US President return the compliment by showering the Prime Minister with praise – he also handed him a series of diplomatic wins on trade and the Chagos Islands.
Sir Keir has come a long way from the time when he described Mr Trump as a dangerous ‘buffoon’. Coming just days after he outraged the Left by slashing the aid budget to boost defence spending, it felt like the week when this Labour government finally started to grow up.
The trip to Washington was not an unmitigated success. Sir Keir’s stated top priority for the talks was securing agreement that the US would provide a security ‘backstop’ for thousands of British and European troops who could be sent to Ukraine to keep the peace if Mr Trump manages to broker a truce.
Failure to do so, he said, would allow Vladimir Putin to ‘come again’ and plunge Europe into war.
That critical issue is still very much in the balance, and will be the main talking point when the PM chairs a summit on Ukraine and European defence on Sunday involving Volodymyr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron and other leading figures.
The US President was equivocal on the issue at best, telling the PM he believed Putin was not going to ‘violate his word’ if a deal is struck.
And he said the British military ‘don’t need help’, even turning to Sir Keir at one point and saying: ‘Could you take on Russia by yourself?’
In truth, the detail of security guarantees was never likely to be agreed before Mr Trump holds talks with President Zelensky today – if then.
And, Ukraine apart, the trip was almost entirely positive.
During an extraordinary 30-minute love-in in the Oval Office, the two men lavished each other with praise, with the US President describing the PM as a ‘wonderful man’. Journalists looked on in astonishment as he added that Sir Keir’s wife Victoria, who he has not met, was a ‘beautiful, great woman’.
Sir Keir, a fierce critic of Mr Trump in the past, imposed an iron discipline on himself in the run up to the crunch meeting. Allies were only too aware that his background as a socialist human rights lawyer would not obviously endear him to the brash New York real estate developer.
For weeks the PM has refused invitations to criticise the President’s wilder claims.
At the start of the traditional on-the-record chat with journalists on the flight to Washington he warned that he would be even ‘less candid’ than usual.
To the irritation of travelling broadcasters, the normal round of on-camera interviews was cancelled lest a stray word provoke the President and derail the meeting.
Instead he spent the morning hunkered down at the Ambassador’s residence with David Lammy prepping for his date with destiny at the White House.
One source said the Foreign Secretary – who is a similar height and build to Mr Trump – even stood in for the man he once branded a ‘tyrant in a toupee’ as the PM practised how to deal with the US President’s notorious alpha male handshake.
‘Ever since the date was set, he has been preparing meticulously for this meeting’, one insider said. ‘Nothing has been left to chance.’
After watching other leaders, including Theresa May, struggle to stand up to Mr Trump, Labour drew up a strategy to just flatter him at every opportunity.
The PM also played shamelessly to Mr Trump’s love of the Royal Family, flourishing a letter from the King offering him a second state visit to the UK.
The President, who has a deep-seated affection for Britain, beamed as he opened the letter and admired the King’s signature.
It would be, the PM assured him breathlessly, an ‘unprecedented, incredible and historic’ occasion.
Over a White House lunch of grilled sea bream, Sir Keir pressed Mr Trump repeatedly to secure his legacy on Ukraine by ensuring the country’s long term security. Failure to do so, he warned, would embolden other hostile states such as China and Iran.
He had more luck on trade where he came close to securing an exemption from swingeing trade tariffs.
‘He was working hard I’ll tell you that,’ the President said admiringly at a press conference in the White House’s East Room later. ‘He earnt whatever the hell they pay him over there.’
But whatever relief was felt by the PM on his flight home, it was tempered by a realisation that it is far from mission accomplished.
When European leaders gather in London on Sunday, the mood is likely to remain sombre.
Mr Trump’s mercurial nature was on display again at the White House yesterday. Asked about his description of President Zelensky as a ‘dictator’ – a comment which outraged European leaders – he replied innocently: ‘Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that.’
Diplomatic sources admit that ministers still have no idea how he plans to persuade Putin to end the war or how committed he is to Ukraine’s long term security.
But they are clinging to signals from those close to Mr Trump who believe Joe Biden made a major error in January 2022 when Putin’s intentions became clear, in failing to make clear to him that the US would deliver a ‘very bloody nose’ if he pressed ahead with a full scale invasion.
One insider said: ‘The President’s view is that he is not going to make that same mistake.’
Viewed in isolation, the PM’s trip to the White House was a diplomatic success. But given the fraught situation in Ukraine, nobody in government is ready to celebrate yet.
One insider said simply: ‘We are in a better place today than where we were at the beginning of the week.’