Sir Keir has been urged to follow Mr Macron and be “firm and robust” with Mr Trump after the French leader appeared to correct the US President on an assertion about European aid to Kyiv.
Addressing reporters alongside Mr Macron, Mr Trump said of the Russian president’s reaction to peacekeepers in Ukraine: “Yeah, he will accept it.
Sir Keir avoided directly criticising the US leader last week after he called Mr Zelensky a “dictator”, but did back the president in a call in which he called him the “democratically elected leader” of Ukraine.
Mr Yousaf said that nobody would be expecting a “Hugh Grant Love Actually moment”, referring to the film scene where a fictional British prime minister stands up to the US, but added: “We do need him to be robust around correcting Donald Trump and any of the inaccuracies should he repeat them, such as Zelensky being a dictator”.
Mr Trump also expressed hope that Volodymyr Zelensky could come to the US to sign a deal to give the US access to Ukraine’s critical minerals in the coming weeks.
