Diplomacy Amid Middle East Tensions: Starmer, Trump Discuss Regional Crisis

Starmer has two important meetings on the topic this afternoon. One of them will be live on TV, but unfortunately it will be the duller and less consequential one – his meeting with the Commons liaison committee. After that he will chair a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee, where the government will be taking decisions about how it will respond to the possibility that the energy price crisis could get significantly worse. In a sign of how serious the economic consequences could get, Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, is attending.

The prime minister spoke to the president of the United States, Donald Trump, this evening. The leaders discussed the current situation in the Middle East, and in particular, the need to reopen the strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy chokepoint that has been threatened by Iran.