What was leaked? What was speculation by media? What was speculation by non-involved MPs to media? And how would anyone go about telling them apart with any degree of certainty? There could be a whole lot of smoke without any fire here, but everyone's assuming there's a fire. It does have to stop.

Thereby demonstrating it's she that needs to go. These are not serious people and, in the wake of the Covid19 inquiry findings yesterday, it has never been clearer as to why we need serious people, such as Starmer, in charge. Time for the clowns, fakes, ideologues and posers to shut up and f-off.

What's the one thing the media/RefUK are trying to do? Get rid of Starmer to cause an early GE. Anyone (inc. McSweeney) dabbling in talk of leadership change is giving the media/RefUK exactly what they want. Some smart people, it seems, have failed to learn the lessons of the last 10 years of chaos.

"The creatures outside looked from Reform to Tory, and from Tory to Reform, and from Reform to Tory again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." And THAT is a big problem for RefUK, because they're a bunch of Tory failures and incompetents who have already shown they can't govern.

I think he has mistranslated "narcissist, fascist sociopath" or "orange shitgibbon". One of the two. Or both.

Horrifying, isn't it? The press have been driving us down this street for decades and the BBC both-siding it on everything, including now racism, should have been the last straw. But it hasn't been. Have we lost the war, or just a battle? I'm terrified that it's the war we've lost. So now what?

I'm not too bothered about UK gov still being on Twitter, but why the hell are they not here? That more than anything screams that someone (everyone) on the comms side haven't just dropped the ball, but don't even know what the ball looks like.

Again, it's an interview, he cannot "stfu" without making things worse. His diplomatic response is infinitely better than a vacuum or vague response, which would be pounced upon by the media and turned into a storm. Frankly, he's just conducting good politics and diplomacy regarding the USA.

And what do you imagine that looks like? It's an interview, he's answering questions and he can't pretend Trump doesn't exist. What would you do? And no matter what you answer, the UK press is 100% certain to attack it. The ONLY answer to sensibly give is one that doesn't pointlessly enrage Trump.

Like it or not, Donald Trump is the President of the United States. There is no 'getting around it'. For the entire world and particularly world leaders that inevitably have to deal with him, Trump is simply a tar baby, and there is no way to handle him without getting dirty. It's just a nasty fact.

It's an interview, not saying anything isn't a good option.

There's the problem - I'm not defending Starmer, I'm observing what he has actually done as opposed to what some are erroneously interpreting him to have done. Again, what do you imagine the alternative looks like? What good would Starmer criticising Trump in this interview do?

It doesn't. He was asked questions and answered them. It's entirely sensible diplomacy.

What do you think the alternative looks like? And, more importantly, what would be gained by the alternative? Starmer says he understands, not that he agrees with Trump. Despise Trump as much as one likes - I do - but recognise when there's nothing to be gained and plenty to lose by stating it.

As others have noted, this is a misreading of what's going on here. If he's being treated as 'world king', it's a world king with no clothes. The world has taken Starmer's lead and is humouring the moronic child, because that's all they can do. No one can stop him - that's the US's problem.

They aren't 'reciprocal', stop saying they are, it's simply not true.

A lot in common with Yes Minister's four stages. www.facebook.com/watch/?v=105...

Farage has a huge problem. He has hitched his wagon to Trump and now... Trump is toxic even throughout the UK's right-wing press. Farage, and by extension Reform as a whole, have a huge problem divesting themselves of Trump. They should, but there's no easy way out for them.