Starmer-Trump LIVE: Latest updates as PM heads to White House for showdown with President over Ukraine

A Ukrainian diplomat has told MSPs his country ‘deserves to be heard’ in negotiations about its future, as he called for Western unity to exert a ‘final push on the enemy’.

Andrii Madzianovsky, the consul of Ukraine in Scotland, said the ‘country which is actually at war’ must be at the negotiating table.

It comes after the Trump administration opened negotiations with Russia on ending the conflict, without including a Ukrainian delegation.

Mr Madzianovsky told MSPs today that ‘Ukraine and the civilised world are going through difficult times’ due to the ‘war criminal Putin’.

The latest YouGov surey has shown that a significant proportion of the nation do not belive Starmer will be a good negociator against Trump.

A poll conducted yesterday ahead of today’s meeting of the two men at the White House asked people how good or bad they thought the Prime Minister will be at negotiating with the US president.

Some 28 percent said ‘very bad’ and 29 percent said ‘fairly bad’, a total of 57 percent.

Just 4 percent said they believe Sir Keir will be ‘very good’ at negotiating and 19 percent said ‘fairly good’, a total of 23 percent.

Some 21 percent said they were unsure. The survey was based on responses from more than 4,000 adults

Former PM Boris Johnson has back the US-Ukraine mineral deal in a post on X.

Trump voiced his support for the rare minerals deal, noting that Ukraine needed to repay the United States for the billions it received in military aid.

‘Without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time,’ Trump said.

News of a deal comes after the US dropped controversial demands for a right to up to $500bn in potential revenue from Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.

Defence Secretary John Healey suffered a bruising encounter with Labour MPs last night as he attempted to defend the Government’s foreign aid cuts, it has emerged.

In a private meeting in Parliament, Mr Healey faced an angry backlash over Sir Keir Starmer‘s plans to boost defence spending by raiding the foreign aid budget.

In order to fund the increase in defence spending, UK spending on development assistance aid will be cut from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent in the next two years.

According to The Times, a group of a dozen Labour MPs – mostly with backgrounds in development – led a backlash against the plans in the meeting with Mr Healy.

But the Defence Secretary sought to reassure those MPs and peers in attendance that the Government would not halt spending programmes ‘abruptly’.

Meanwhile, Deputy PM Angela Rayner insisted the Cabinet was ‘united’ on the plan to fund increased defence spending by cutting foreign aid – despite claims of splits.

Keir Starmer will today warn Donald Trump he risks plunging Europe into war unless he agrees a long-term ‘security backstop’ for Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters while travelling to Washington last night, Sir Keir confirmed he is ready to send thousands of British troops to keep the peace in Ukraine if President Trump secures a truce in the three-year-old war.

But he warned it would be an impossible mission unless the United States provides a military ‘backstop’ to British and European forces.

The PM said Putin would inevitably ‘come again’ unless the West is united in securing Ukraine’s future – potentially plunging the continent into war.

Here is an outline of the PM’s schedule ahead of his meeting with President Trump:

• Starmer will arrive at the White House at 12:15 local time (5:15pm in the UK).
• At 12:20 local time US President Donald Trump and Starmer will meet privately, before making public remarks and answering some questions
• Starmer and Trump will then hold a joint news conference at 14:00 local time (7pm in the UK)

A former staff member of the US embassy in the UK has suggested that President Donald Trump will ask for a higher defence spending commitment from UK.

Speaking on BBC Radi 5 Live, Michael Martins said:

An increase of 0.2% of GDP over two or three years is not going to cut it with President Trump.

I think he wants to see a higher number and that’ll be something he continues to push for within Europe and with Nato member states.

He added that it is unlikely that Trump will deploy US troops to Ukraine, but instead push for ‘economic deterrence’ by trying to get American businesses into Ukraine.

Sr Keir Starmer is expected to host foreign leader at Lancaster House in central London this Sunday.

It is expected that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron will be there, as will as Germany, Italy and other European allies.

The co-leader of the Green Party has called for Sir Keir Starmer to oppose Donald Trump’s Gaza real estate plan when he meets the president in Washington.

Carla Denyer said the meeting is a ‘vital opportunity for our prime minister to set clear red lines’, and supported Sir Keir’s approach on Ukraine.

He must also make clear that the same applies to Palestinians, and tell Trump that the UK will stand firmly against his appalling plan to remove Palestinians from Gaza – effectively a threat of ethnic cleansing.

Now is the time for Starmer to put British values into practice on the world stage. The people of this country will be watching to see if he can deliver.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said a framework economic deal with the United States is ready – but security guarantees that Kyiv views as vital remain to be decided.

Key details have not yet been made public, but reports suggest the US request for $500bn (£395bn) in revenues from using Ukraine’s natural resources had been dropped.

A senior Ukrainian official said late Tuesday that Kyiv had agreed on the terms of the deal, which would see the United States jointly develop Ukraine‘s mineral resources, and that Zelensky could sign it on Friday in Washington.

Zelensky admitted that a major issue could scupper the agreement, saying that Ukraine needed to know where the United States stands on its continued military support.

Ms Reeves talked up the importance of Sir Keir’s trip as she expressed confidence the UK can boost trade with the US over the next four years.

The Chancellor said the announced increase in defence spending was ‘in our national interest’ when asked if the UK expects Mr Trump to withdraw his threat of 20 per cent tariffs in return.

In terms of the future trading relationship between the UK and the US, last time that President Trump was in the White House, trade and investment between our two countries increased.

I have every confidence that that can happen again. I know that the PM looks forward to talking about those issues and many others in his meetings with Donald Trump tomorrow.

Ms Reeves also suggested a peace deal in Ukraine would be good for economic growth.

The Chagos Islands deal will not go ahead without the backing of US President Donald Trump, David Lammy has confirmed.

The foreign secretary said he still believed the agreement to cede the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius was the “best deal” which could be struck.

Lammy’s suggestion that Trump will have a veto over the deal came after Sir Keir Starmer faced questions about whether cash to pay Mauritius for leasing back a military base would come out of the increase in defence spending he announced.

Asked by ITV if the US leader had a veto on the agreement, Lammy replied:

If President Trump doesn’t like the deal, the deal will not go forward. The reason for that is because we have a shared military and intelligence interest with the United States, and of course they’ve got to be happy with the deal, or there is no deal.

Keir Starmer jokingly likened Peter Mandelson to Donald Trump last night as he welcomed the new British ambassador to Washington.

Speaking at a glitzy party at the palatial ambassador’s residence in the US capital, the Prime Minister briefly looked set to criticise President Trump – before turning the joke on the new ambassador.

Addressing an audience drawn from the Washington elite, the PM said:

I’ve only just arrived but already I can feel there’s a real buzz around Washington right now.

You can sense that there’s a new leader. He’s a true one-off, a pioneer in business, in politics.

Many people love him. Others love to hate him. But to us, he’ s just…. Peter.

Ahead of his trip, in an announcement firmly directed at Mr Trump, Sir Keir said UK defence spending will rise from its current 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent in 2027.

He scrambled to pledge the increase in Britain’s military budget amid huge doubts over America’s commitment to European security after Mr Trump’s return to power.

It also follows the US President’s repeated calls for NATO allies to boost spending on their armed forces and to shoulder greater responsibility for their own security.

Sir Keir said the £6billion-a-year uplift would ‘ensure the security and defence of our country and of Europe’ in the face of the threat from Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Welcome to MailOnline’s live blog as Sir Keir Starmer jets off to Washington DC, for his first White House meeting with Donald Trump later today.

The Prime Minister is heading across the Atlantic for crunch talks in the White House, as he attempts to convince the US President not to abandon Europe and Ukraine.

He has already attended a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence in the capital – joined by British ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson.