Confront Trump over his 'torrent of lies’, PM urged

President accuses UK of doing nothing’ to end Ukraine war

- MILLIE COOKE

Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to stand up to Donald Trump's "torrent of lies" when he visits the United States next week, as the president accused Britain of "doing nothing" to end the war in Ukraine.

As global outrage over the US president’s chaotic position on the conflict grows, the prime minister has been issued a stark warning over the state of the transatlantic alliance and has been urged to challenge the president in the “strongest possible terms” when he sits down with him on US soil.

It comes after Mr Trump was widely condemned for wrongly claiming that Kyiv started the war and for describing Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator”. In his latest intervention, the US president claimed “nobody’s done anything” to end the war, after the US this week began peace talks with Russia that excluded Ukraine.

Asked about next week’s visits by French president Emmanuel Macron and Sir Keir to Washington, Mr Trump told Fox News: “They didn’t do anything either [to end the war]. The war’s going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing.”

While the prime minister has expressed solidarity with Mr Zelensky as “Ukraine’s democratically elected leader”, he has been urged to go further when he comes face to face with Mr Trump next week.

“It’s time for Starmer to stand up for Britain and our allies in Europe”, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told The Independent.

Warning that Mr Trump’s words “could have been written in Moscow”, Sir Ed added: “Trump accusing Ukraine of being responsible for the war must be where we draw the line.”