European leaders expected to hold emergency summit on Ukraine with PM to join

Published

5 months ago

February 17, 2025

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The prime minister will join an emergency meeting of European leaders to discuss Ukraine, expected to happen early next week.

Sir Keir Starmer has spoken of a “once in a generation moment” for the UK, US and Europe to work together and warned against NATO “divisions”.

He said the UK will “work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together” amid the threat faced from Russia.

His comments come as two senior American officials head to Saudi Arabia for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine – talks US officials have confirmed Europe will not be part of.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned: “The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.”

Analysis: Peace talks risk short-term win that rewards Putin

The French president is understood to be convening crisis talks between European leaders and NATO, which the prime minister will attend.

Sir Keir will then take messages from the meeting to Washington DC when he meets US President Donald Trump the following week, according to Downing Street sources.

During a talk at a security conference in Munich, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said he was “very glad that President Macron has called our leaders to Paris” to discuss “in a very serious fashion” the challenges posed by Mr Trump.

Washington also sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.

“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in NATO,” said Sir Keir on Saturday night.

“We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face.”

Meanwhile, US national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff are thought to be going to Saudi Arabia for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.

It comes as US secretary of state Marco Rubio landed in Israel on Saturday evening to begin a diplomatic tour of the Middle East.

He will discuss Gaza and the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel during the trip, after a widely condemned proposal by President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump said there had been an agreement to begin negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine, after holding phone calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian president alluded to the conversations at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, suggesting Europe should be playing a role in the negotiations as well.

“Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement, and the same rule should apply to all of Europe,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

“The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.”

He told world leaders it is time for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe”, adding his army was “not enough”.

Following his call with President Putin, Mr Trump posted on Truth Social saying: “We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.”

Mr Trump had told White House reporters he did not see any way “that a country in Russia’s position” could allow Ukraine to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get all of its occupied land back.

It comes after Sir Keir told Mr Zelenskyy in recent days that Ukraine was still on an “irreversible path” to joining NATO.

However, on Saturday, the US special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said peace talks could focus on territorial concessions from Russia and targeting Mr Putin’s oil revenues.

“Russia is really a petrostate,” he said as he suggested Western powers needed to do more to enforce sanctions on Russia.

Mr Zelenskyy said the main issue in peace talks was to “not allow everything to go according to Putin’s plan”.

Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel will be discussing the latest political stories in the UK and around the world on the Trevor Phillips On Sunday show from 8.30am this morning.

Politics

MP Zarah Sultana who was ousted from Labour announces she is starting new political party with Jeremy Corbyn

Published

10 hours ago

July 3, 2025

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MP Zarah Sultana who was ousted from Labour announces she is starting new political party with Jeremy Corbyn

An MP who was ousted from the Labour Party has announced she is setting up a new political party with Jeremy Corbyn.

Independent MP Zarah Sultana said she and the former Labour leader will co-lead the new party, which she did not provide a name for.

She said other independent MPs, campaigners and activists from across the country will join them, but did not name anyone.

Politics latest: Zarah Sultana’s stinging resignation letter

Ms Sultana also said she was “resigning” from the Labour Party after 14 years.

She was suspended as a Labour MP shortly after they came to power last summer for voting against the government maintaining the two-child benefit cap.

Several others from the left of the party, including Mr Corbyn, were also suspended for voting against the government, and also remained as independent MPs.

However, Ms Sultana was still a member of the Labour Party – until now.

Mr Corbyn has previously said the independent MPs who were suspended from Labour would “come together” to provide an “alternative.

The other four are: Iqbal Mohamed, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain.

Mr Corbyn and the other four independents have not said if they are part of the new party Ms Sultana announced.

In her announcement, Ms Sultana said she would vote to abolish the two-child benefit cap again and also voted against scrapping the winter fuel payment for most pensioners.

Ms Sultana also voted against the government’s welfare bill this week, which was heavily watered down as Sir Keir Starmer tried to prevent a major rebellion from his own MPs.

On Wednesday, Ms Sultana spoke passionately against Palestine Action being proscribed as a terror organisation – but MPs eventually voted for it to be.

She said to proscribe it is “a deliberate distortion of the law to chill dissent, criminalise solidarity and suppress the truth”.

Ms Sultana said they were founding the new party because “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper – just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population”.

She called Reform leader Nigel Farage “a billionaire-backed grifter” leading the polls “because Labour has completely failed to improve people’s lives.

The MP, who has spoken passionately about Gaza, added: “Across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.

“But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.

“We are not going to take this anymore.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions.

“Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain.”