When Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets Donald Trump today, Keir Starmer and the other European leaders who are in Washington to support the Ukrainian leader will be keen to "avoid a repeat" of the two men's "spiky" Oval Office encounter in February, said the BBC .

That clash came just a day after a "diplomatic triumph" for the UK, when Starmer met the US president for the first time, said The Telegraph . Since then, Britain has made a concerted effort to "teach the Ukrainian leader how to 'speak Trump'". And the key figure behind this strategy is Jonathan Powell, Starmer's national security adviser, "one of the most influential figures in British foreign policy".

What did the commentators say?

Powell was appointed to his post in November 2024, and "has been central to everything Labour has

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