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Sir Keir Starmer has said the United States “is right” about the UK and Europe needing to take more responsibility for defence and security.

The prime minister, speaking at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow on Sunday, said he is clear Britain “will take a leading responsibility” in protecting the continent.

“Instability in Europe always washes up on our shores,” he said.

“And this is a generational moment. I’ve been saying for some time that we Europeans – including the United Kingdom – have to do more for our defence and security. The US is right about that.”

He added “we can’t cling to the comforts of the past” as it is “time to take responsibility for our security”.

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Donald Trump sparked an emergency meeting of European leaders this week after he said European NATO members should spend more on defence, while the US should spend less.

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Will Trump and Starmer have a ‘Love Actually’ moment?

Sir Keir has said he will set out a path for the UK to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence, up from the current 2.3%, but has not indicated when that will be.

It is believed he may announce the details when he visits Mr Trump in Washington DC on Thursday, bringing forward the announcement that was expected in the spring when a defence spending review is published.

The prime minister reiterated the UK will “play our role” if required in Ukraine following a peace agreement after he earlier this week said the UK would send troops to be part of a peacekeeping force.

Pic: AP
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Sir Keir will meet Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday. Pic: AP

However, his comments caused a row with Germany and Italy who said it was premature to commit to boots on the ground, although France agreed with the UK.

Sir Keir said: “As we enter a new phase in this conflict, we must now deepen our solidarity even further.”

He added: “There can be no discussion about Ukraine without Ukraine.

“And the people of Ukraine must have long-term security.”

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This week has seen US officials meet their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia to discuss Ukraine – which has been met with indignation by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as none of his team were invited.

No Europeans were invited either, sparking concern the US is pandering to Vladimir Putin.

Sir Keir has promised Mr Zelenskyy he will make the case for safeguarding Ukraine’s sovereignty when he meets with Mr Trump, who has called the Ukrainian president a dictator.

Mr Trump also said Sir Keir and French President Emmanuel Macron, who will visit the White House too this week, “haven’t done anything” to end the war.

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Body found in search for missing jogger Jenny Hall

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Body found in search for missing jogger Jenny Hall

A body has been found in the search for 23-year-old runner Jenny Hall. 

She was last seen leaving her home in Barracks Farm, County Durham, in her car just after 3pm on Tuesday.

Police said there are not thought to be any suspicious circumstances after a body was found in a very remote area in Teesdale on Sunday morning, five days after she went missing.

Jenny Hall. Pic: Durham Constabulary
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Jenny Hall went missing on Tuesday. Pic: Durham Constabulary

“We’re sorry to report that officers searching for missing woman Jenny Hall, have sadly found a body,” Durham Constabulary said in a statement.

“Officers carried out an extensive search alongside specialist partners and have been working around-the-clock to locate Jenny after she went missing on February 18.

“The body was found in a very remote area in Teesdale just after 9.30am today.

“Formal identification has yet to take place. Jenny’s family have been notified and are currently being supported by specialist officers. They have asked for privacy at this devasting time.

“It is not believed there are any suspicious circumstances and a file will be prepared for the coroner.”

A major police search was launched after Ms Hall’s disappearance.

Her car, a red Ford Focus, was found on Wednesday parked on the B6278, near remote moorland between Eggleston and Stanhope.

Mountain rescue teams, specialist drones and sniffer dogs had been combing the Hamsterley Forest and the surrounding areas, where there are a number of running trails, this week.

Digital intelligence officers also carried out extensive inquiries into Ms Hall’s mobile phone, smart watch and running apps.

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Fresh amber warning for rain as Met Office issues alerts for much of UK

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Fresh amber warning for rain as Met Office issues alerts for much of UK

A fresh amber weather warning for heavy rain has been issued by the Met Office – with much of the UK already on alert for high winds and showers.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and the UK’s west coast and the Midlands have yellow warnings for wind on Sunday – meaning the possibility of transport delays and short-term power cuts.

There are also rain warnings in place for several parts of western UK.

The new amber warning has been issued for rain in south and central Wales and is in force from 3pm on Sunday to 6am on Monday.

An amber warning means danger to life from floodwater, homes and businesses are likely to be flooded, and there is a chance some communities will be cut off.

Winds across the west of the UK will increase throughout the morning with gusts up to 70mph in exposed areas, the Met Office said.

Zoe Hutin, a meteorologist at the forecaster, said Sunday is expected to be the “worst day” before conditions improve.

“The wind warning itself for the mainland UK ends at 6pm, but we can expect to continue to see quite blustery conditions even into the evening as the mainland rain itself pushes through.”

She added: “By the time people get up on Monday, we’ll still have some of the residual rain from that front in the far south-east of the country, and quite cloudy across England as well.

“But actually elsewhere, it could be a decent start.”

The Met Office’s yellow weather warnings for much of England and Scotland came into force at 6am and are expected to run until 6pm on Sunday.

A separate yellow warning for Northern Ireland came into force at 3am and runs until 3pm.

Rain and high winds are expected across the west of the UK
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Rain and high winds are expected across the west of the UK

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People who have noticed some slightly higher temperatures the last couple of days may be dismayed at the latest predictions.

“Through the week, those temperatures are trending back down,” Ms Hutin said.

“And so it will be getting cooler each day, but they will actually just be recovering to around average for the time of year. So it won’t be cold.

“It will just be returning back to where we would expect to be for this time of February.”

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Starmer’s challenge is to see if usual rules of special relationship still apply under Trump after years of love bombing

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Starmer's challenge is to see if usual rules of special relationship still apply under Trump after years of love bombing

Visits by prime ministers to the American president matter much more to us “Brits” than they do to them.

Donald Trump spelt this out in the off-hand way he announced that he had granted Sir Keir Starmer the coveted appointment in his busy schedule.

“We have a lot of good things going on,” the president boasted. “But he asked to come and see me and I just accepted his asking.”

After his phone call with the prime minister, Trump declared “we’re going to have a friendly meeting, very good”. That was before Sir Keir publicly disagreed with Trump’s ruling that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “a dictator”.

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Trump on Starmer visit

Always assuming that his invitation is not cancelled in a fit of presidential pique, Starmer will find himself proceeding with the utmost caution when he gets to the Oval Office.

Downing Street sources say they are anxious “not to poke the bear” in the full knowledge that previous leaders have endured many awkward moments in their attempts to further a special relationship at away matches.

Starmer will have his work cut out. Since his re-election, Trump has signalled that he has less time than ever for traditional alliances.

Newly inaugurated presidents traditionally send friendly greetings to their territorial neighbours. Trump slapped tariffs on Canada and Mexico and talked about US territorial expansion to both the north and the south.

Historically the UK prime minister has often been the first foreign leader welcomed by a new US president. Trump hosted Theresa May less than a week after he took office for the first time and surprised her when he held her hand to go down some steps.

This year Starmer has already been preceded by the leaders of Israel, Japan, Jordan and Indonesia and will be crossing the Atlantic to pay his respects in the same few days as France’s President Macron.

Donald Trump holds then British Prime Minister Theresa May's hand as they walk along the colonnades of the White House in Washington in January 2017. Pic: AP
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Donald Trump holds Theresa May’s hand as they walk along the colonnades of the White House in Washington in January 2017. Pic: AP

Thatcher and Reagan’s political romance

Even at the best of times, British officials are prone to exaggerate the closeness of the two countries’ mutual interests.

Harold Macmillan thought he could teach the young John Kennedy a thing or two, as the Greek to JFK’s Roman, but ended up being dictated to by Kennedy on the nature of the UK’s “independent” nuclear deterrent.

One of the wily Harold Wilson’s most significant achievements was refusing to send British troops to fight alongside the Americans in the Vietnam War.

The most celebrated PM/POTUS political romance was between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Indeed when the Falklands conflict broke out in the spring of 1982, I was in the White House briefing room to hear then US secretary of state Al Haig joke with innuendo about the closeness of their relationship.

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher dancing at the White House in 1988. Pic: Reuters
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Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher dancing at the White House in 1988. Pic: Reuters

It blossomed after Thatcher won Reagan over to give the UK expedition staunch support, in defiance of the advice from some of his officials.

Even so, Thatcher was unnerved by Reagan’s apparent willingness to consider mutual nuclear disarmament in discussion with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.

She flew hastily to Washington DC following the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Reykjavik – “to give Reagan a bollocking” – at least according to the Daily Express reporter in her travelling party.

In 1990 she reportedly told George HW Bush “now George, this is not time to go wobbly” during the flurry of meetings and phone calls which followed Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Clinton owing Blair and Bush’s love bombing

John Major got off to a bad start with Bill Clinton after Conservative sources tried to help the Republican campaign dig up dirt on Clinton’s time as a student at Oxford. Soon after the US election in 1992, Major flew to the US in the hope of being invited to a face-to-face meeting with the then president-elect. After several days all he got was a phone call from Little Rock, Arkansas.

In spite of their ideological closeness, Tony Blair later said he found it more difficult to deal with the Third Way Democrat Bill Clinton than he did with the “straightforward” Republican George W Bush.

Clinton nonetheless was a key player in bringing about the Belfast agreement. Blair’s greatest success was persuading the president to commit US forces to peacekeeping in the Balkans but he also did Clinton significant personal service.

Blair went on a scheduled visit to the White House at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, just days after the president had made his statement “I did not have sex with that woman”.

At their joint news conference afterwards, Blair allowed all the questions to be deflected to him and expressed his admiration for the president. As they walked away from the East Wing, Clinton put his arm around the prime minister and appeared to say “I owe you one”.

Bill Clinton, the then US president, bows his head during a joint news conference with UK PM Tony Blair in February 1998. Clinton was repeatedly questioned about the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Pic: Reuters
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Bill Clinton and Tony Blair during a joint news conference in February 1998 when the president was repeatedly questioned about the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Pic: Reuters

Clinton’s advice to Blair on his successor George W Bush was “hug him close”. But both sides were apprehensive when the Labour prime minister flew to Camp David for his first meeting with the second President Bush.

Bush wanted them to dress casual, and according to the British ambassador, Blair put on some “ball-crushingly tight jeans”. From Bush’s first words about sharing the same kind of toothpaste, Blair was subjected to love bombing.

The two leaders’ relationship remained close, including sending troops side-by-side into Afghanistan and Iraq.

Brown’s bag of CDs, Cameron’s humility and common interests

Through no fault of his own Gordon Brown found himself in the midst of a British media furore after Barack Obama’s team returned a bust of Churchill which had been lent personally to George W Bush by the British Embassy.

The new Obama administration’s ignorance of the usual niceties was further demonstrated when a history-steeped gift to the president from Brown was reciprocated with a bag of CDs.

David Cameron struck a humble note visiting Obama when he described the UK as America’s “junior partner”.

Their alliance backfired when Obama tried to help during the Brexit referendum – warning that the UK would find itself “at the back of the queue” for striking a trade deal with the US after Brexit.

David Cameron and Barack Obama at a NATO summit in 2016. Pic: Reuters
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David Cameron and Barack Obama at a NATO summit in 2016. Pic: Reuters

The rapid turnover of prime ministers during Joe Biden’s presidency did not allow any of them to build up a close working relationship. In any case, Biden chose to identify with his Irish, and not his English, heritage.

Until this second Trump presidency, the US and the UK were at least pulling in the same direction, with differing interests but the common assumption that they would back each other up where possible.

Starmer’s challenge is to see if those rules still apply.

Left-right differences can be overcome

Until now, differences of left and right have not mattered much. It was a mere spat when the Reagan administration and the Labour leader Neil Kinnock ended up briefing against each other after the British leader of the Opposition was granted a brief Oval Office meeting before the 1987 general election.

Reagan told Kinnock his unilateral nuclear disarmament policy was crazy and Labour said doddery Reagan had not recognised the shadow foreign secretary Denis Healey.

Kinnock and Labour later abandoned their anti-nuclear policy.

Starmer has got off to a better start than that. He and the foreign secretary David Lammy say they were hosted “graciously” by the then president-elect at Trump Tower in New York City last year.

They will be hoping they can keep it that way this week in the White House.

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