{"id":144120,"date":"2025-02-20T14:58:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T14:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politics.co.uk\/?p=144120"},"modified":"2025-02-26T17:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T17:02:59","slug":"from-starmer-to-farage-what-responses-to-trumps-attack-on-zelenskyy-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politics.co.uk\/politicslunch\/2025\/02\/20\/from-starmer-to-farage-what-responses-to-trumps-attack-on-zelenskyy-reveal\/","title":{"rendered":"From Starmer to Farage: what responses to Trump\u2019s attack on Zelenskyy reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s evisceration of diplomatic consensus and disdain for multilateral action is remaking the world order at a pace spectator governments, most of all those in Europe, are struggling to comprehend.<\/p>\n

Every social media tirade, standard diplomatic procedure dictates, should justify some new summit so agreed action can be considered and implemented. Earlier this week, Emmanuel Macron hastily convened European premiers in Paris for discussions over the future of Ukraine. But Trump\u2019s chaotic briefing since has further complicated matters. The escalating war of words between the US president and Ukraine\u2019s Volodymyr Zelenskyy exposes the futility of old world<\/em> instincts in the new world <\/em>the former is forging.<\/p>\n

In two bursts across Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump claimed Zelenskyy has an approval rating of \u201c4 per cent\u201d; is doing a \u201cterrible job\u201d as Ukraine president; and is acting as a \u201cdictator without elections\u201d. Alongside these comments, came the suggestion that Ukraine started the war \u2014 not Russia or Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

The profound implications of Trump\u2019s stance will not have been lost on Downing Street and Keir Starmer<\/a>, whose strategy of hugging the US president close (or as close as possible) is facing renewed challenge. Since the US presidential election in November, Starmer has sought to stress the thin overlap between his government\u2019s aims and those of the now-incumbent Trump administration. The sweeping diplomatic differences, on issues like the Ukraine war, have been minimised and downplayed. The approach, suffice it to say, has demanded significant rhetorical contortion.<\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s fickle politics cares little for the UK-US \u201cspecial relationship\u201d. His vision for Ukraine has evolved in recent weeks \u2014 no doubt shaped by early conversations between the US administration and the Kremlin. It was Zelenskyy\u2019s suggestion Trump is swimming in a thick soup of Russian propaganda that prompted his above comments.<\/p>\n

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Trump\u2019s remarks effected Starmer\u2019s most overt criticism of US foreign policy since taking office. In a call with Zelenskyy, the UK prime minister reiterated his support for \u201cUkraine\u2019s democratically elected leader\u201d. A No 10 readout of the conversation revealed Starmer told his Ukraine counterpart it is \u201cperfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime as the UK did during World War Two\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starmer, it is reported, wants to be a bridge between the United States and Europe. But how just tenable is this approach when Trump is tracking more and more toward the worldview promulgated by Putin?<\/p>\n

The ramifications of this new reality stretch far beyond British politics \u2014 that much is plain. And the lobby lens of Westminster oneupmanship can distort just as much as it reveals. But the new diplomatic disorder, and its construction by an ascendant Trump-Putin axis, begs questions of all of the UK\u2019s political parties. Their answers \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 deserve some scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch<\/a>, the leader of the Conservative Party<\/a>, is a case in point. Addressing the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference on Monday, Badenoch praised Trump for \u201cfixing\u201d problems as US president \u2014 problems he had initially spotted in his first term in the White House. \u201cPeople ask me what difference new leadership will make?\u201d, Badenoch stated. \u201cWell, take a look at president Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, Bloomberg<\/em> political editor Alex Wickham noted \u201csome disquiet\u201d in Conservative circles over Badenoch and her frontbench\u2019s lack of comment on the situation in Ukraine. The Tory leader\u2019s ARC speech had contained no reference to the negotiations being conducted between the US and Russian governments \u2014 or the war generally.<\/p>\n

But Badenoch ended her relative silence on Wednesday afternoon in response to Trump\u2019s \u201cdictator\u201d diatribe. Zelenskyy \u201cis the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin\u2019s illegal invasion\u201d, the Conservative leader insisted in a post to X.<\/p>\n

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She added: \u201cPresident Trump is right that Europe needs to pull its weight \u2014 and that includes the UK. We need to get serious. The PM will have my support to increase defence spending \u2014 there is a fully funded plan to get to 2.5 per cent sitting on his desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat should be the bare minimum. Starmer should get on with it, get on a plane to Washington and show some leadership. We cannot afford to get this wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no overt criticism of the US president by name, despite the apparent denunciation of his \u201cdictator\u201d remark. The two phrases \u2014 \u201cZelensky is not a dictator\u201d and \u201cPresident Trump is right\u201d \u2014 spoke to the fine balance Badenoch sought to strike with her statement.<\/p>\n

And contrast Badenoch\u2019s response to the comments issued by former Conservative defence secretary Ben Wallace, who accused Trump of echoing Russian \u201cpropaganda lines<\/a>\u201d on Wednesday morning (pre \u201cdictator\u201d remark). See also the comments of former Conservative MP and cabinet minister Simon Clarke \u2014 who recently introduced Badenoch as the warm-up act for her New Year speech. He labelled Trump\u2019s Ukraine stance \u201cutterly appalling<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former levelling up secretary said: \u201cWhatever the admiration some on the (centre) right may have for other aspects of the president\u2019s agenda, his position \u2026 will embolden a murderous tyrant and sows the seeds for further, even more serious conflict in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

One takeaway from Badenoch\u2019s statement is that she is not about to stop praising the US president\u2019s general initiative in government.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Democrats<\/a>, as I argued last week, are the foremost critics of Donald Trump<\/a> in Westminster. Unsurprisingly then, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has called out the US president\u2019s remarks in the strongest possible terms. He has labelled Trump \u201cthe Spokesperson for Vladimir Putin\u201d, and accused him of \u201cparroting\u201d Kremlin propaganda.<\/p>\n

After Trump\u2019s Zelenskyy comments, Davey added: \u201c[This] must be where the line is drawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my sincere hope that the whole political spectrum in the United Kingdom will speak with one voice in opposition to Trump\u2019s lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davey has spent the best part of today pointing to Reform UK<\/a> leader and Trump chum Nigel Farage<\/a>\u2019s conspicuous silence. \u201cYou seem unusually quiet there\u2026 @Nigel_Farage any thoughts?\u201d, he posted this morning.<\/p>\n

Then came the follow-up: \u201cThere’s a rumour that Nigel Farage is keeping his head down because he’s off to a Trump cheerleading conference over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid I\u2019m being proved right \u2014 Farage is far more interested in Trump’s success than British security. He is a bootlicker and a plastic patriot.\u201d<\/p>\n

This afternoon however, Farage became the last UK political leader to reject Trump\u2019s characterisation of Zelenskyy \u2014 over 20 hours after Badenoch\u2019s intervention on X. Speaking to GB News<\/em>, the Reform leader insisted that Zelenskyy \u201cis not a dictator\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cIt’s only right and proper that Ukrainians have a timeline for elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reform leader did go on to defend Trump’s conduct so far, saying he promised to \u201cbring Putin to the negotiating table\u201d, and \u201cthat is exactly what he’s done\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it right to try to seek peace in a war that has now seen one million battle casualties? Yes\u201d, Farage said. He added that European allies are upset because \u201cthey have shown themselves to be pretty irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Still, Farage\u2019s long silence \u2014 broken by his GB News<\/em> interview \u2014 was telling.<\/p>\n

The Reform leader is set to appear at CPAC, the pro-Trump Conservative Political Action Conference, in Washington DC this weekend. Perhaps the Reform leader feared the backlash from MAGA acolytes if he rejected the president\u2019s Ukraine stance. Perhaps it is the power of Elon Musk, as the ringleader of the ruthless Online Right, that Farage dreads. By straying from the MAGA line, Farage risks inciting Musk\u2019s fury. (The Tesla owner has unsurprisingly backed Trump\u2019s \u201cdictator\u201d comment).<\/p>\n

Farage\u2019s stance on the Ukraine conflict is one of the reasons Reform UK<\/a> is politically vulnerable. During the 2024 general election<\/a> campaign, Reform\u2019s insurgency was stalled after Farage suggested the West \u201cprovoked\u201d Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine by expanding the European Union and NATO military alliance eastwards. The discourse, at best, distracted from Reform\u2019s central election pitch and, at worst, repelled potential voters.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s recent comments have re-exposed this soft underbelly.<\/p>\n

And so this saga serves as a test for Farage: is he willing to act as a serious UK political actor and track toward the mainstream of British public opinion? Or is he more concerned with courting MAGA sentiment, and the support of a disproportionately noisy online fringe?<\/p>\n

Farage must choose: the US speaker circuit or the House of Commons? MAGA opinion or British public opinion? Fringe or mainstream?<\/p>\n

His eleventh-hour intervention would suggest Reform is reckoning with these questions. In the end though, the political rationale is just too compelling. According to a recent YouGov poll, just 3 per cent of Britons agree with Trump that Ukraine is to blame for Russia\u2019s invasion of its sovereign territory. 8 per cent believe both sides are equally responsible, while an overwhelming 77 per cent blame Russia.<\/p>\n

The findings are consistent across supporters of all political parties, including more than 60 per cent of Reform voters.<\/p>\n

The status of MP was always going to confer upon Farage additional responsibilities \u2014 ones that he might have sidestepped in his erstwhile extra-parliamentary life. Trump\u2019s Ukraine comments serve as a notable example of an issue from which the Reform leader could not escape.<\/p>\n

After all, the time Farage took to pronounce on the issue speaks to his enduring political weaknesses and vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

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Starmer backs Zelenskyy as Ukraine\u2019s \u2018democratically elected leader\u2019 after Trump attack<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n