When the RAF’s bombs started falling on Houthi rebel positions in the early hours of Friday morning, the Prime Minister was preparing for bed in a blacked-out train heading through the Ukrainian night.
Rishi Sunak made his final calls about military action in Yemen as he was boarding a private flight to Poland, where the specially-commissioned carriages were waiting to take us across the border on a nine-hour journey to Kyiv.
After a brief sleep, Mr Sunak woke to convene meetings with the Government’s most senior defence and security officials. Joining him in his palatial compartment – complete with sofas, dining table, flat-screen television and double bed – were high-powered aides including Sir Tim Barrow, his National Security Adviser, and Gwyn Jenkins, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, the UK’s second most senior military officer.
With documents spread out on the table in front of them, and a secure line opened back to Whitehall, they discussed the success of the joint UK-US strikes against rebels targeting the Red Sea shipping lanes, before previewing his packed programme in the Ukrainian capital.
Glen Owen speaks with Rishi Sunak in Ukraine about the latest announcement of military aid
British-American forces launched more than 60 air and sea strikes on 16 Houthi military and logistical sites in Yemen on Thursday
An Iranian protester is holding a torn British flag while standing under a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during an anti-U.S. and anti-British protest in front of the British embassy in downtown Tehran, Iran, on January 12
Mr Sunak’s visit highlighted why politicians under pressure at home often seek sanctuary abroad. At bombsites, at hospitals and, in particular, at the Ukrainian Parliament he was greeted as a national hero – not a sensation he experiences too often in the UK – while his obvious rapport with President Volodymyr Zelensky prompts inevitable questions about whether Sir Keir Starmer would look as much at home on the international stage.
‘Don’t let Sir Keir take us back to square one,’ is a point he makes repeatedly to The Mail on Sunday, the only newspaper to accompany him on his journey.
While America and the EU are hesitating about the extent of their commitment to Ukraine in the face of a renewed Russia push, Britain has been unwavering. The Prime Minister announced a further £2.5billion in military support for the country, prompting widespread warmth on the otherwise bitterly cold streets of Kyiv.
Mr Sunak is clearly concerned – but also energised – by the global volatility which is forcing him to deal simultaneously with Ukraine, Yemen and the war in Gaza, as well as the threat from China and the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency.
‘The fact that you are talking to me in Ukraine about what we have had to do in the Red Sea illustrates that the world we are living in is becoming more challenging,’ he says, describing it as ‘illustrative of the world we are living in’ that ‘these things have happened at the same time’.
Yemen was hit by a number of coalition strikes following attacks on trade ships
An RAF Typhoon aircraft takes off to join the US led coalition to conduct air strikes against military targets in Yemen
An RAF Typhoon aircraft returns to base at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, after striking targets in Yemen
Houthi fighters brandish their weapons during a protest following US and British forces strikes, in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on January 12, 2024
As snow-covered birch forests flash past the window, he declares ominously: ‘I think the world is probably the most unstable it has been in decades. It is also more complex. My job is to make sure the British people are safe. Can we afford to do these things? We can’t afford not to.’
Mr Sunak is also preparing for a Commons battle this week over his flagship Safety of Rwanda Bill, which is intended to prevent further legal challenges to his still-defunct policy of sending migrants to the African country.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman is among more than 50 Tory MPs who want to toughen the Bill with a series of amendments. Ms Braverman says the Bill ‘doesn’t work’ and has urged the Prime Minister to ‘start again’ to resurrect the legislation. The Government – which is also facing opposition from Left-wing Tories who think the Bill is actually too tough – will be defeated if 32 Tory MPs vote against it.
But Mr Sunak hopes to win round the Right-wing rebels by promising the legislation will prevent the European Court of Human Rights blocking extradition flights, and insists that he shares the national ‘frustration’ about high levels of immigration. Sounding exasperated, he says: ‘I’m fed up, the country is fed up and they are fed up with the legal merry-go-round we’ve been on that has kept challenging the will of Parliament’.
As he fiddles with two Ukrainian bracelets – one in the country’s colours that he picked up in a Washington coffee shop run by two Ukrainian sisters, and another, more sinisterly, made of bullets and given to him by a commander during the 2022 defence of Kyiv – Mr Sunak urges voters not to channel that frustration into a Labour vote.
‘The only thing that Sir Keir Starmer has talked about is a cosy deal with the EU which would see us accept 100,000 more migrants. That’s not what the British people want. That’s not what I’m going to do, I’m going to make the situation better, I want to stop the boats.’
He concludes: ‘There is a clear choice now. The alternative to that is going back to square one with Starmer. He has been Leader of the Opposition for four years now and in that time he hasn’t said what he would do differently. He just snipes from the sidelines’.