Keir Starmer refused to answer a simple question put to him by Channel 4 journalist Anushka Asthana in yet another awkward on-screen moment for the Labour prime minister. Starmer was at the White House in Washington D.C. earlier this week to meet with US president Donald Trump and other European leaders, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Though Starmer insisted “no decision about Ukraine should be made without Ukraine”, he simply repeated himself and refused to give a yes or no answer when asked if he would back the country on refusing to cede land to Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin.

Channel 4’s Asthana asked him simply: “If President Zelensky does not want to cede land, you will back him?”

And Starmer said: “Well all matters of territory are a question for President Zelensky, I think that’s a very clear principle that I’ve held, that everybody recognises and I think is very important to read in, if you like, to the development today on bilateral meetings and trilateral meetings. But that is a recognition that Ukraine must be at the table and ultimately it is a decision for Ukraine.”

It was simply a repeat of what he’d already said, stating: “In terms of the approach that was taken on territorial issues, what I’ve said throughout and being clear with President Zelensky, is that in the end has to be a matter for him. Erm, and that’s why we’ve had the principle throughout – no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine.

“Now the development today in relation to President Trump talking to President Putin and organising a bilateral is recognition of that principle, that the two parties need to talk about this, but with a trilateral President Trump also agreed as an outcome for this meeting.”

Keir Starmer was skewered during the segment (Image: Getty)

He added: “But it’s coupled with – and you can’t separate the two – the question of security guarantees, because those guarantees are so important to the process as a whole and today was a real breakthrough because we had worked up guarantees from the Coalition of the Willing, I’m really pleased about that, but I was always clear that we needed the US as a backstop as part of that guarantee to make sure that Ukraine, Europe and the UK are safe and secure as we go forward.”

Asthana told viewers: “The question of land is no trivial matter, the German chancellor said ‘Imagine giving up Florida if you’re the US’, to put it in a British perspective, the Donbas is the equivalent of Wales and Yorkshire and then some.”