How the UK is likely to give Zelenskyy what he wants
It’s not surprising that a British Labour government should enjoy warmer relations with a Democrat Whitehouse than those of its Conservative predecessor.
It is however conspicuous that Washington is treating Starmer, Lammy and their team with a degree of warmth and respect that was in short supply when Johnson, Truss and Sunak were successively in charge.
The reborn love-in between Washington and London could of course be something Starmer looks back on in years to come as a fleeting and delightful anomaly - because the looming US presidential election is too close to call, and while Starmer insists it’s his duty to work constructively with whoever occupies the Whitehouse, the values and policies of Trump and Starmer are about as far apart as is possible to conceive.
Also, Starmer confirmed on the flight over to Washington that he doesn’t know the Democrat contender Kamala Harris, and won’t be meeting her on this trip.
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If she wins, it would take a while for any entente between her and the PM to be established, if it ever were - and it’s worth remembering that relations between Gordon Brown as PM and another Democrat president Barack Obama were always strained.
But that’s all to assess after polling day on 5 November. Right now Starmer is meeting Biden for the second substantial time since winning the election, and top of their agenda is their shared commitment to maximising pressure on Putin to end his war in Ukraine.
There is a specific practical measure that Starmer and his foreign secretary Lammy want to take, which is to accede to President Zelenskyy’s request to be able to fire British Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory.
Britain feels it needs Washington’s approval for two reasons. First, the missile’s positioning systems use America’s GPS tracking, so Putin will inevitably see Washington as complicit if the missiles explode in Russia.
And second Starmer wants to be in lockstep with Washington when trying to limit Putin’s expansionist ambitions more generally.
I am told by British sources that we won’t see a formal announcement today that Zelenskyy has got approval from the UK - underwritten by Washington - to fire the Storm Shadow weapons to target military bases in Russia.
And in fact we may never see an explicit Western announcement to that effect - because that’s not what actually matters.
“It’s much more likely you’ll see the missiles being deployed to take out Russian offensive capability, before anyone says anything publicly about it” said one member of the government.
In other words, Zelenskyy will get what he wants, with his actions speaking louder than UK or US words.
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