Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Wednesday the 10th of December, Prime Minister's questions was dominated by talk of leadership.

Are our friends quite so nice about us when we're not there?

Well, at least with Donald Trump,

no one need wonder what he's saying behind their back. He was completely upfront about calling

European leaders he claimed were his friends weak, their countries decaying and hinted that

the US may scale back support for Ukraine. Those views are reflected in the US national security strategy,

which the Lib Dem leader, Sir Ed Davy, didn't think, was very friendly at all.

Quite apart from the irony of President Trump, accusing others of trampling on basic principles

of democracy, it repeats far-right tropes of civilizational erasure and threatens

that the US government will cultivate resistance in Europe. No wonder Vladimir Putin has welcomed

that strategy. Ed Davies suggested the Prime Minister should phone the Oval Office and tell the President to stop interfering in our democracy.

Kirstarmer didn't take him up on that, saying instead,

What I see is a strong Europe, united behind Ukraine,

and united behind our long-standing values of freedom and democracy.

But while she didn't mention President Trump,

Kemi Badock seemed to agree with him about weak leadership in Europe,

or at least in the UK, and she didn't think she was alone.

While his own MPs describing him as a caretaker, Prime Minister.

Mr Speaker, my own MPs are very proud.

We've just passed a budget which protected our public services and our NHS.

Kirstarmer's own MPs actually look quite uncomfortable rather than proud,

...