Europe Ukraine crisis has brought UK back to centre stage. Will it last?

Barely a day passes, it seems, without Keir Starmer talking to another European leader or preparing for a continental summit.

- Peter Walker

The crisis over Ukraine has very much pushed the UK closer towards the centre stage than at any point since Brexit. But is this a new era or a false dawn?

One thing is certain: the optics of engagement have changed. Starmer never shared Boris Johnson's almost active pride in stoking a row with Brussels, but particularly before the election his advisers were wary of reminding voters about his past as a remainer.

With support for Ukraine about as close as the UK gets to all-party consensus, things are different. Starmer can be photographed at the centre of a gathering of mainly European leaders, as he was on Sunday, safe in the knowledge that even Nigel Farage will praise him for his diplomacy.

Donald Trump's apparent abandonment of Ukraine and move away from decades of Nato defence guarantees "has really accelerated the rapprochement between Britain and Europe, not just the EU", said Peter Ricketts, the former senior UK diplomat and government national security adviser who is now a crossbench peer.