Is Trump about to make Starmer sell out Ukraine?

As Trump’s victory has thrown the UK’s foreign policy into crisis, I thought it was a good moment to interview Tom Baldwin – Keir Starmer’s biographer, former aide to Ed Miliband, and all-round Labour insider.

You can listen here on Apple

Or here on Spotify

On Amazon here or on any other podcast app via this site

One point Tom made deserves far more attention than it has received. Now that Trump has won, the talk not just from Baldwin but from others close to Downing Street is of forcing Ukraine to accept a peace deal with Russia.

Here is Tom in our podcast

“If you had asked Western diplomats six or seven months ago, they'd have said, Ukraine has to win. Ukraine has to repel Russia from all its territory. You generally don't get those answers now. It's about where a ceasefire line can be drawn.”

Peter Mandelson was interviewed on the Laura Kuenssberg show on Sunday. Mandelson is tipped to become the UK’s ambassador to Trump’s Washington, and is clearly now delivering a party line.

Mandelson claimed that Ukrainian freedom was “sacrosanct” and no one could tell Ukrainians what to do. All well and good, you might think, but then came the inevitable “but”.

But, Mandelson continued, Ukraine could not join Nato. Instead, and in return for a deal with Putin, Nato and Europe might offer economic and military guarantees.

The problems with his proposal are legion. First of all, Ukraine has to trust Donald Trump, when he, J.D. Vance and Elon Musk have denigrated Ukrainian resistance at every turn.

Second Ukrainians are meant to accept that large portions of their country must remain under the control of Russian war criminals, who torture adults and abduct children.

Finally, everyone must trust Putin when he has broken every previous promise he made about Ukraine.

I accept that Labour has to try to work with Trump and his crew. But its hope that the US will stand with Ukraine, the UK and Europe is just magical thinking.

In a circuitous manner, Labour is returning to the Corbyn years. Corbyn gave Putin the benefit of the doubt after the Salisbury poisonings because it suited his anti-American ideology.

Starmer and Mandelson are giving Putin the benefit of the doubt because it suits their pro-American ideology, which in their naivety, they believe can somehow survive the far right taking power in Washington

Below is a long read from me explaining why they are deluded.

And finally….

I love writing this newsletter but it is a great deal of work. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if you can.

You will receive access to all articles, archives, podcasts and debates and you will also allow me to keep this project going as a journalistic concern without advertising or clickbait or any kind of proprietorial interference.

Annual subscriptions work out at £1.15 ($1.45) a week, which is cheaper than the cost of the worst cup of coffee you could buy in any cafe in the developed world.

Click on the pieces below to get a taste of what is on offer. (There’s a free trial for the fainthearted.)