It’s no secret that Keir Starmer prefers foreign diplomacy to the domestic side of his job. So after perhaps the most difficult week of his leadership so far, the Prime Minister was no doubt relieved to have made it to the Munich security conference today, addressing delegates in the main conference hall this morning.

Starmer was unexpectedly forthright in his address: Britain would be prepared to fight

Starmer was unexpectedly forthright in his address: Britain would be prepared to fight

Starmer began by warning that the prospect of war for Britain was no longer a remote one. Russia, he warned, could be ready to use force against the Nato alliance ‘by the end of this decade’. In doing so, he echoed key figures of the British armed forces and intelligence services who, in recent months, have said much the same. ‘The world has changed fundamentally,’ he said. ‘We must find new ways to uphold our values and the rule of law.’ He repeated this last point on the ‘rule of law’ at least twice more in the course of his speech.

Starmer was unexpectedly forthright in his address: Britain would be prepared to fight. He underlined the importance of the Nato’s Article 5, a Musketeer-type clause that commits members of the alliance to mutual defence in the event of an........

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