Why Starmer's desperate ‘global statesman’ rebrand isn't fooling anyone
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
Amid more dire polling for Labour and the revelation that both he and the Defence Secretary were on holiday as Donald Trump threatened to wipe Iran off the map at the weekend, Keir Starmer has now disappeared to the Middle East for meetings with Gulf state leaders.
The Telegraph’s political editor Tony Diver tells Camilla and Tim that, despite him having no say in ceasefire talks, this is a desperate, last-ditch strategy to portray Starmer as an international statesman by Number 10, with a local election wipe-out on the cards in May.
Elsewhere, Tony also talks Camilla and Tim through his exclusive research that shows the UK is more divided than ever before.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:06.6 | Ahead of May's critical local elections, we're taking the Daily Tea on the road, |
| 0:11.7 | visiting key battlegrounds across Britain and answering your questions with four special live events. |
| 0:18.3 | Join me and Camilla, plus special guests, in London on April 27th, Cardiff |
| 0:24.4 | on April the 28th, Warwick on April the 29th, and Worthing on April 30th. You can buy tickets |
| 0:31.8 | now at telegraph.com.ukkah.uk, forward slash daily tea live. |
| 0:41.3 | The world is in chaos and the government is on holiday. It turns out that both the prime |
| 0:46.1 | minister and the defence secretary were on their sunbeds when Donald Trump threatened to |
| 0:50.8 | wipe out Iran. Amid dire polling for labour, here Keir has jetted off to the Middle East |
| 0:55.8 | in a hopeless attempt to paint himself as a global statesman. |
| 0:59.2 | Is he fooling anyone? |
| 1:00.7 | Plus, the Telegraph has done its own research |
| 1:02.7 | that says the UK is now more divided than ever before. |
| 1:06.6 | Our political editor, Tony Diver, joins us. |
| 1:09.2 | Welcome to The Daily Tea with me, Tim Stanley. |
| 1:11.3 | And me, Camilla Tominy. |
| 1:23.4 | As we speak, the Prime Minister is in Abu Dhabi, |
| 1:26.9 | as part of his ongoing tour to let him be clear. |
| 1:30.5 | And I hope the locals will. |
| 1:33.6 | Of course, to them... |
| 1:34.7 | Let me be clear. |
| 1:35.9 | To them, a tourist is a tourist. |
... |
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