Boris Johnson held discussions with Donald Trump about Ukraine during his US tour, in an apparent attempt to make the Ukrainian case to the skeptical former US president.
Johnson met Trump “to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the vital importance of victory in Ukraine”, his spokesman said. It was learned that on Thursday they held the discussion.
The former prime minister – who faces continued questions at home over allegations of lockdown-breaking parties at Checkers and No 10 – was in Dallas, where he met Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, and Las Vegas, where he made his latest. in his recent series of lucrative corporate speeches.
The discussions with Trump, the location of which was not disclosed, probably centered on Johnson, a strong international cheerleader for the Ukrainian cause, who is trying to impress his ideas on the former president.
Trump, who is the favorite to win the Republican nomination and face Joe Biden in next year’s presidential election, has repeatedly praised Vladimir Putin and appears to be agnostic on the issue of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
During a question-and-answer session broadcast on CNN earlier this month, Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war. “Russians and Ukrainians, I want them to stop dying,” he said. “And I will do that. I will do that in 24 hours.”
Speaking earlier, Keir Starmer said Johnson had questions to answer about the Checkers allegations, despite the public being “fed to the back teeth” with stories about his run-ins with the law.
The Labor leader said there were people hurt and tired about the ongoing saga, but there were “questions now as to why these allegations haven’t come out before”.
Starmer weighed in on the controversy after the Cabinet Office handed down fresh allegations of police misconduct this week. They did this after finding diary entries about guests who visited Checkers during the pandemic, which Johnson gave to lawyers representing him as part of the Covid inquiry.
Police fined Johnson more than a year ago in connection with an event in June 2020 to mark his birthday. More than 100 fines have been issued to others for activities carried out in and around Downing Street.
The Partygate saga contributed to the demise of Johnson’s premiership, but he has since wondered whether a comeback is possible. Johnson is still facing an MPs’ privileges committee inquiry into whether he lied to the House of Commons by saying all the Covid rules were being followed in Downing Street.
On Friday, Starmer told broadcasters: “I think people are fed up in the back teeth with stories about Boris Johnson. At the heart of it is the simple fact that, across the country, people are making many sacrifices in the time of Covid.
“Some people don’t go to the birth of their child, don’t go to the funeral of one of their closest family members. These are deeply personal things, and the increasing revelations about Boris Johnson, I think , just add that feeling of pain, and people are fed up with it.
“I think there are questions now as to why these allegations didn’t come out earlier… Obviously, there are investigations, I understand that. The core of it is a human sense of a rule for us, that we followed, another rule for Boris Johnson and those at the top of the Tory party.
The diaries, which show about a dozen events at the prime minister’s grace-and-favor mansion, Checkers, and No 10, between June 2020 and May 2021, were provided by lawyers appointed by Johnson’s government. .
However, the Cabinet Office, which pays the lawyers, also received the diaries, and officials then decided that under the civil service code, they should refer the case to the police.
Downing Street denied Johnson was the victim of a politically motivated “stitch-up” after his allies reacted angrily to news of the latest police involvement.
No 10 stressed that Rishi Sunak had nothing to do with the decision to hand over Johnson’s pandemic diaries, saying that he had “not seen the information or material in question” and that the ministers were “not involved in this process and only found out after the police were contacted.”
