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Sir Keir Starmer has offered to put “British Boots on the Field” in Ukraine after he tries to convince US President Donald Trump that Europe is ready to play a key role in securing peace.
The British prime minister wants to act as a “bridge” between Washington and Europe against a background of deepening transatlantic tensions over Ukraine, protection, trade and free speech.
Starmer will participate in a summit organized by France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Monday to discuss Europe’s role in the end of the war in Ukraine, among the signs that Trump is bypassing the continent.
Prior to the meeting, he pressured other European countries to deploy troops in Ukraine after a ceasefire, saying that Britain was “ready and ready to contribute to security guarantees in Ukraine by placing our troops on earth if necessary . ”
Paris’s meeting is expected to discuss the possible setting of a “security force” which would station troops behind – but not in – a future line of ceasefire.
“I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with the potential deployment of British military and women in harm,” Starmer wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
However, he added: “While European nations must grow at the moment – and we will – US support will remain critical and a guarantee of American security is essential for sustainable peace.”
Starmer is expected to travel to Washington in the last week of February in an attempt to persuade Trump to fully involve European nations in talks in Ukraine and try to remove US tariffs.
The prime minister, speaking earlier on Sunday, said that this was “once at a moment of generation for our national security when we engage with the reality of the world today and the threat we face from Russia”.
He added: “The United Kingdom will work to ensure that we keep the US and Europe together. We cannot allow any division in alliance to be distracted by the enemies we face. “
Downing Street said he was expecting to have another meeting of European leaders, including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after Starmer returned from his talks with Trump.
Britain – like other European countries – is under severe pressure from Trump to increase protection costs against a slow growth background and tense public services.
Starmer is committed to determine the “a road” to increase the UK defense costs from 2.3 percent of GDP to 2.5 percent, but so far it has not said when the target would be met.
Starmer’s allies insisted that defense costs would not rise above the 2.5 percent GDP target set in the manifesto, creating increasing tensions with the protection chiefs they want the most.
“There will definitely not have a notice prior to Trump’s visit,” a prime minister ally said, referring to the schedule to reach 2.5 percent. “We have to complete the strategic defense review first.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves wants to keep spending at 2.3 percent as long as possible, as her fiscal plans come under heavy strain. Starmer, who makes the final decision, is under pressure from the White House and the Chiefs of Defense to move to 2.5 percent quickly.
Reeves’ fiscal rule requires the current budget to be in surplus by 2029, but its 9,9 billion pounds “Headroom” against this rule has already been blown up by gloomy economic forecasts. More expenses or tax lifts are likely to be needed to introduce the gap.
If Britain increased the protection costs to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2029-is expected to be one election year-would force Reeves to find an additional 5bn-6bn £ at a time when other public services have already been squeezed.
Defense chiefs told Starmer on Friday that they needed 2.5 percent of GDP to be spent now to avoid immediate cuts, according to people informed about the discussions.
Then they want to raise that level to 2.65 percent – £ 10 billion a year more than currently – a figure that has been rejected as unbearable by Starmer and Reeves.
The idea of a British “bridge” between Washington and Europe split after Brexit, with US presidents often preferring to talk to Berlin or Paris along with EU leaders in Brussels.
But Starmer’s allies believe Trump has a positive picture of Britain, which can be exploited in political influence, even if Vice President JD Vance criticized the United Kingdom’s approach to free speech last week.
Jonathan Reynolds, the Secretary of Business and Trade, told the BBC on Sunday that Britain’s balanced trade relationship and the arrangement of the slight touch of artificial intelligence could function to the UK’s advantage.
“There is definitely a picture of Europe and a different picture of us in the UK,” Reynolds said. “We have a chance to play a constructive role.” In trade, he said the US saw Britain “in another light”.
Lord Peter Mandelson, UK ambassador to Washington, said recently that Britain should make a virtue of being beingNO Europe ”. It remains to be seen if this is Starmer’s desired opinion, given Trump’s stated plan to set tariffs across the board and Vance’s criticism for Britain last week.
Vance told the Munich security conference last week that “the fundamental freedoms of the religious British, in particular” were under threat, criticizing the prosecution of a protester against abortion.
Even if Starmer persuaded Trump to give Britain special treatment – for example with tariffs – this would complicate the prime minister’s parallel effort to “restore” EU relations, including removing trade barriers.
