As Keir Starmer flies back from his 15th foreign trip since July today, voters could be forgiven for asking what the point is of all his jet-setting diplomacy.
The Prime Minister spent the run-up to his latest trip saying his ‘number one agenda item’ at the G20 summit in sunny Rio de Janeiro was to ‘shore up’ support for Ukraine ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
‘We need to double down’ he told world leaders, as the conflict passed its 1,000th day.
His fellow leaders responded by signing off a summit communique which fails to condemn Russia’s aggression and instead calls simply for a ‘just and durable peace’.
With heroic understatement, Downing Street described the outcome on the PM’s top priority as ‘disappointing’.
On China, the Prime Minister went out of his way to cosy up to president Xi Jinping in the hope of securing trade access that might help boost the United Kingsdom’s anaemic growth prospects.
The move has alarmed many at home, given China’s malign actions towards the UK and grim repression of human rights in Hong Kong and Xinxiang.
President-elect Donald Trump is apparently preparing for a trade war with Beijing in January.
The G20 summit in Brazil this week was Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s 15th foreign trip since July
The Prime Minister met with various world leaders at this week’s summit, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Sir Keir became the first Prime Minister to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping since 2018 this week
Will there be any economic benefits from Sir Keir’s bid to thaw relations with president Xi?
If Mr Trump makes it a choice between siding with the US or China, will the PM really choose his new friends in Beijing?
All in all, even the Sir Keir’s allies can point to only limited progress in return for his four days out of the country.
Inside No 10, aides are becoming concerned that the public are starting to notice that their Prime Minister sometimes seems more comfortable on his government jet than he is at home where an ungrateful nation has sent his personal approval ratings deep into the red. Pollsters report that members of the public taking part in focus group sessions are increasingly raising the fact the PM seems to be hardly ever here.
They will notice again today when, because Sir Keir chose to spend hours attending a children’s football event in Brazil after the G20 summit ended, he will miss Prime Minister’s questions in the Commons, leaving the tiresome business of public accountability to his deputy Angela Rayner.
The PM’s media minders have even made efforts recently to limit the images of him flying abroad.
Pictures of him being interviewed by reporters while flying have been banned. Broadcasters filming at refuelling stops have been told not to get the PM’s government jet in the background.
Inside Number 10, aides are reportedly becoming considered over the amount of time the Prime Minister is spending abroad
The Prime Minister flew to Washington DC in September to meet with departing US President Joe Biden
One of the Prime Minister’s main aims at this week’s G20 summit has been to unify support amongst the globe’s major nations behind Ukraine
One insider questioned the value of the moves, saying the public were unlikely to believe the Prime Minister had ‘swum to Brazil’ just because there were no pictures of his plane.
Sir Keir yesterday defended his packed travel programme, saying that ‘building partnerships’ abroad would help ‘deliver the things that matter to people at home’.
But aides concede that despite the rhetoric he is likely to curb his wanderlust next year.
‘Now the relationships are up and running I think you will see other members of the Cabinet take up some of the travel needed to build on them,’ said one.
They are not quite taking his passport away. But they are starting to pose the old wartime question: ‘Is your journey really necessary?’
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