Keir Starmer’s wins and losses during crunch White House summit with Donald Trump

Meeting between the Labour prime minister and US president touched on Ukraine, tariffs, trade deals, the Chagos Islands, Nato and a historic state visit invitation from King Charles. It was the meeting that could well define Keir Starmer’s premiership and the most important set of discussions between a British PM and a US President in decades.

Sir Keir and Donald Trump met in the White House for the first time since last month’s inauguration with an agenda that included issues from securing lasting peace in Ukraine to tariffs and a potential US-UK trade deal. Here we run down the PM’s wins and losses from the historic encounter.

In an unexpected win Sir Keir will surely be celebrating, Trump’s threats of tariffs on imported goods to the US now appear to be aimed more at EU than the UK. In a press conference after their Oval Office meeting, the president suggested that a US-UK trade deal could be signed “rather quickly” and might mean that tariffs on UK goods into the US would be unnecessary.

“I think there's a very good chance that in the case of these two great friendly countries, I think we could very well end up with a real trade deal where the tariffs,” the president said. Trump also appeared to give his backing to the UK government’s controversial deal on the Chagos islands – just hours after UK foreign secretary David Lammy admitted the agreement would be sunk if the US vetoed it.

"We're going to have some discussions about that very soon, and I have a feeling it's going to work out very well," the president said. An unprecedented invitation to come to the UK for a second state visit, delivered by Sir Keir via a letter from King Charles, was very well received. The PM described the letter as "really special" and said the move "symbolises the strength of the relationship between us".

After reading the letter, Mr Trump said of the King Charles: "He's a beautiful man, a wonderful man - I've gotten to know him very well, actually, first term and now second term.". Sir Keir Starmer replied: "This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented and I think that just symbolises the strength of the relationship between us - so this is a very special letter.

Mr Trump replied: "That's a great, great honour. And that says at Windsor - that's really something.". The two men seemed to have decent chemistry. At one point Sir Keir laughed and said “I second that” when Trump praised the Labour leader’s “beautiful wife”.

But the Republican also kept him on his toes – including at one point telling him he did not like him being a tough negotiator. Mr Trump said: "Prime Minister Starmer, you've been terrific in our discussions. You're a very tough negotiator, however, I'm not sure I like that, but that's okay.".

"The Prime Minister and I have gotten off to an outstanding start. The US and UK have a special relationship, very special, really, like no other passed down through the centuries, and we're going to keep it that way," he added. Trump declined to back Starmer’s plea to provide US troops as a ‘backstop’ in Ukraine, even at one point suggesting that they not be needed because of his confidence in his planned peace deal with Russia.

Asked if he could see a situation where US forces could be deployed as a backstop, Mr Trump said: "Well, there is a backstop. First, you have European countries, because they're right there, we're very far away, we have an ocean between us. But we want to make sure it works. So, I don't know when you say backstop you mean a backstop psychologically, militarily or what.

"We are a backstop because we'll be over there, we'll be working in the country... I just don't think you're going to have a problem.". In a similar vein, the US President also repeatedly praised Vladimir Putin as a man to be trusted. Sir Keir had arrived in Washington with a message that the Russian leader has to be viewed as the aggressor over Ukraine - and cannot be rewarded.

He also refused to retract his jibe against the Ukrainian President Zelensky that he was a ‘dictator’, laughing it off. Asked about the remark he made in a post on his social media site Truth Social, Trump said: "Did I say that? I can't believe I said that.".

In a further blow, Trump also said on the issue of Ukraine being allowed to join Nato “It's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen.”. President Trump also mocked Sir Keir to his face during a press conference after the two men had a working lunch, asking if the UK could take on the Russians “on your own?”.

As expected, Mr Trump dominated the proceedings, although Sir Keir was able to challenge vice president JD Vance over freedom of speech in the UK. He also corrected Mr Trump over his claim that European nations "get their money back" from the Ukraine war, while America would not. The PM said: "We're not getting all of ours. Quite a bit of ours was gifted, it was given, there were some loans, but mainly it was gifted, actually".