Former British prime minister Harold Wilson used to say that a week was a long time in politics. So is four days, 16 hours and 39 minutes.<\/p>\n
That was roughly the gap between the 2am (6am UK) attack on Venezuela<\/a> ordered last Saturday by Donald Trump<\/a>, and Downing Street\u2019s confirmation late on Wednesday night that the US president had finally taken a call from the man meant to be his closest military ally, UK prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a>.<\/p>\n That it took almost five days to reach Trump \u2013 and after a second US show of force in the maritime seizure of a Russian-flagged tanker<\/a> \u2013 is being touted by Starmer\u2019s party political critics in Westminster as evidence that, under him, UK influence is waning on the world stage.<\/p>\n \u201cThe events in Venezuela have shown that the prime minister is on the outside looking in, not respected abroad,\u201d said Kemi Badenoch<\/a>, leader of the opposition Tories. She said it was \u201cconcerning\u201d that, by Wednesday afternoon, he still hadn\u2019t even spoken to Trump.<\/p>\n The deeper fear in Westminster, however, is that it\u2019s not Starmer who is losing influence in this new age of raw power, but the nation of Britain, no matter who runs it.<\/p>\n Starmer has courted Trump with an unprecedented second UK state visit and lavish praise since the US president\u2019s inauguration a year ago. In return the UK leader has secured carve-outs from some of Trump\u2019s trade tariffs and promises of technology investment.<\/p>\n What he hasn\u2019t got is a seat at Trump\u2019s decision-making table. <\/p>\n Starmer confirmed last week that he was not even consulted in advance of the US strike on Caracas in which the Venezuelan president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, was forcibly brought to New York to face drugs charges. The US did, however, tip off certain oil companies.<\/p>\n The UK prime minister was also kept out of the loop last November when details were leaked of an initial 28-point Ukraine peace plan that Trump\u2019s envoy, Steve Witkoff, had been developing following talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n Starmer\u2019s allies say he was subsequently able to influence the process \u2013 after Witkoff\u2019s plan leaked, the US moved closer to giving hard military guarantees to Ukraine, for which the UK prime minister lobbied hard.<\/p>\n [\u00a0Keir Starmer\u2019s \u2018see no evil\u2019 Donald Trump strategy risks making him weakerOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Britain was tipped off in advance of US air strikes last June on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, although UK forces did not take part. But even that early warning was wrapped in a snub, as Starmer had spent the previous few days loudly calling for de-escalation.<\/p>\n This week, the US capture of the Russian-flagged oil tanker, the sanctioned Bella-1, also known as the Marinera, was carried out with direct support from the UK. It supplied a refuelling tanker and gave Royal Air Force surveillance of the sanctioned ship.<\/p>\n Only then, or hours later, did Starmer finally have his call with Trump. They discussed the tanker, Ukraine, Venezuela and Trump\u2019s increasingly bellicose rhetoric about a potentially taking over the Danish-controlled Greenland, a mineral-rich, vast, ice-clad territory.<\/p>\n \u201cThe prime minister set out his position on Greenland,\u201d said the sparse official readout from the UK side, which was circulated at 10.39pm.<\/p>\n Starmer didn\u2019t risk upsetting Trump by reiterating in the readout what his position actually was. Presumably, the same thing that he hinted at on Tuesday, when he said he \u201cstands with\u201d Denmark, an ally of the UK and the US through the Nato alliance. The Danes had condemned Trump\u2019s aggressive rhetoric.<\/p>\n Starmer has sought to adapt to this new geopolitical age of hard power over soft influence by deepening a military pivot that began under his Tory predecessors.<\/p>\n Britain is hiking defence spending while cutting international aid, which will drop from 0.7 per cent of the value of Britain\u2019s economy before the pandemic, to 0.3 per cent by 2027.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, spending on its previously hollowed-out defence forces is set to rise from 2.3 per cent of the value of its economy to 2.6 per cent by 2027, with a vague ambition to get it up to 3.5 per cent by 2035.<\/p>\n Britain now understands that if it wants greater influence in an age of raw power, it must beef up.<\/p>\n