Good morning. Yesterday, at his press conference in Downing Street, Keir Starmer said he wanted to restrict the amount of time that toddlers spend with their screens. He probably was not thinking of Donald Trump, but Trump's egotism, greed and lack of self control mean that he is regularly compared to a young child and, within the last couple of hours, on a flight from the US to Davos, he has been glued to his screen, firing off inflammatory posts on his Truth Social network.
For Starmer, the most embarrassing is one criticising the UK's decision to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius (in return for an agreement that the UK and the US will still be able to use the Diego Garcia military base for at least another 99 years). The Trump administration approved the deal when it was negotiated, accepting the Downing Street argument that this would remove the risk of the UK and the US losing access to Diego Garcia under international law. Trump now says this is a sign of "total weakness" and "great stupidity".
Trump has also been trolling Starmer and other Europeans with renewed calls for the US to annex Greenland.
Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister and chief secretary to the PM, has been giving interviews this morning. Asked about Trump's Chagos Islands tweet, he played down the significance of it, and insisted that British diplomacy with the US was still "working".
In an interview with BBC Breakfast, he defended the Chagos Islands deal. He said:
This is the right way to secure the future of the island and I wouldn't for a second suggest that Britain should be embarrassed or humiliated by any of those decisions.
And, in an interview on the Today programme, asked if Starmer was feeling calm about Trump accusing him of an act of "great stupidity", Jones replied:
Yes, he is, because the prime minister's primary duty is to protect British interests. And, as he's shown repeatedly, he does a pretty good job at doing that, including with President Trump.
Asked if Starmer would just ignore what Trump was saying about issues like Greenland, Jones said the UK disagreed with Trump about Greenland. Asked if Starmer would behave differently in his dealings with Trump in future, Jones replied:
As I say, in the past the prime minister has shown that private, proper British diplomacy can work. We've been able to secure deals that protected medicine production in the UK, car manufacturing, we've got a trade deal across the line. This put us in the best position of any other country in the world.
And we've made progress on military aspects, including in Ukraine.
So the prime minister has a good track record of this. It's noisy, I understand that. It's challenging. It is not normal for geopolitical discussions to be handled in this way. But British diplomacy is working; the prime minister's relationship is working; and we will continue to do that.
9.30am: Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House of Representatives, gives a speech to MPs and peers in parliament.
10.50am: Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, gives a speech to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
11am: Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister and chief secretary to the PM, gives a speech at the Institute for Government.
After 12.30pm: Dan Jarvis, the security minister, is expected to make a statement to MPs about the proposed Chinese "super-embassy" in London which is expected to be approved this morning.
Afternoon: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, takes speaks at two events at Davos.
Late afternoon: MPs debate Lords amendment to the bill Diego Garcia military base and British Indian Ocean Territory bill which gives sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can't read all the messages BTL, but if you put "Andrew" in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there; I still have my account; and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow , I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can't promise to reply to them all but I will try to reply to as many as I can either BTL or sometimes in the blog.