Sir Keir Starmer arrives for Ukraine talks with world leaders

Sir Keir Starmer has arrived for crunch talks on the war in Ukraine with political leaders.

The Prime Minister is welcoming leaders from across Europe and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is also expected at the meeting at Lancaster House in London.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be among those in attendance at the summit before he heads off to meet the King.

He travelled to the UK on Saturday after his Oval Office confrontation with Donald Trump which has created a divide between the US and its European Nato partners.

French President Emmanuel Macron was pictured arriving at the summit around lunchtime on Sunday.

He was embraced by the Prime Minister before heading inside.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte has also arrived, as well as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

They were followed shortly afterwards by other leaders including Mr Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.

Before the meeting, Sir Keir spoke to the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and agreed that “Europe must unite and drive forward urgent action that will secure the best outcome” in Ukraine.

Issuing a readout of the call with president Alar Karis of Estonia, prime minister Evika Siliņa of Latvia and president Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister updated them on his discussions with the leaders of Ukraine, France and the United States in recent days – and underlined his focus on securing a lasting peace in Ukraine that ensures their future sovereignty, backed up by strong security guarantees”.

Sir Keir had said earlier on Sunday that the UK will work with France “and possibly one or two others” on a peace plan for Ukraine that will be discussed with the US.

He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “My driving purpose has been to to bridge this, if you like, and get us back to the central focus.

“And as a result of the meeting yesterday, we had quite a long time with President Zelensky, then President Macron and President Trump on the phone.

“We’ve now agreed that the United Kingdom, along with France and possibly one or two others, will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, and then we’ll discuss that plan with the United States.”

European leaders rallied round to support the Ukrainian president after the scenes in the Oval Office on Friday evening, which saw Mr Trump publicly berating Mr Zelensky.

Sir Keir told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the encounter made him feel “uncomfortable”, adding that “nobody wants to see that”.

“The important thing is how to react to that,” said Sir Keir.

“There are a number of different routes people could go down. One is to ramp up the rhetoric as to how outraged we all are or not.

“The other is to do what I did, which is roll up my sleeves, pick up the phone, talk to President Trump, talk to President Zelensky, then invite President Zelensky for an extensive meeting yesterday, a warm welcome, and then further pick up the phone to President Macron and President Trump afterwards.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her “heart went out” to Mr Zelensky following his clash with Mr Trump.

She told the same programme: “I watched it and I couldn’t believe what was happening, he was being humiliated.”