Sir Keir Starmer had three audiences in mind when he took to the stage at the Munich Security Conference. But if he is to keep his word to any of them, he must deliver a political step-change at home.

First was the EU. He wants them to allow the UK to access its new defence commissioning fund which would give British defence firms a role in a lucrative scheme to rearm the continent. He’s already been refused once, but he commenced a new charm offensive, proclaiming “we are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore”.

Next came the United States, for whom he seeks to act as a diplomatic bridge with offended European allies. Arguing that “the US remains an indispensable power”, he echoed the White House’s argument that Europe must stand on its own two feet, and dispatched a carrier group to the High North to assuage Donald Trump’s Greenland concerns.

Third was the domestic British audience, which he hopes to reassure that he will fulfil the most fundamental duty of any government: security through strength.

This last audience may well be the hardest to persuade – not only because the better they get to know the Prime Minister the less they like him, but also because it is they who must bear the hard choices necessary to allow him to be true to his word.

It’s all very well promising to be tough and constant to other world leaders, but without the consent of........

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