'Starmer's big moment': can PM persuade Trump not to give in to Putin?

The Labour leader has been advised to choose his words carefully at this week’s crucial White House meeting

- Toby Helm

When Keir Starmer is advised on how to handle his crucial meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, he will be told by advisers from Downing Street and the Foreign Office to be very clear on his main points and, above all, to be brief.

"Trump gets bored very easily," said one well-placed Whitehall source with knowledge of the president's attention span. "When he loses interest and thinks someone is being boring, he just tunes out. He doesn't like [the French president, Emmanuel] Macron partly because Macron talks too much and tries to lecture him."

Starmer will also be advised to flatter Trump when he can, to say that everyone is so grateful that he has focused the world's attention on the need for peace between Russia and Ukraine. But to flatter subtly. And not to lay it on too thick.

One - unconfirmed - story from Theresa May's first visit to see Trump at the White House in 2017 is doing the rounds in Whitehall again before the Starmer trip, and is being used as a cautionary tale for the current prime minister.

"When May first went to see Trump, she was told she had to congratulate him on lots of things," said one source.

"So she rushed over to him and congratulated him on his new cabinet appointments, saying: 'You've appointed a great team, Donald.

"At which point he said: 'Oh thank you so much, Theresa - who do you particularly like among them?' Which left her a bit stumped, so she just said: 'Oh, well, all of them, Donald."

The lesson being that too much flattery can get you into trouble if you do not do your homework.