ALMOST all Prime Ministers get a taste of the high life on the international stage after eventually realising it’s far more appealing than the domestic drudgery of Westminster. But no duck has taken to that water as quickly as Sir Keir Starmer — who was noticeably less snappy at questions about Ukraine and Israel than winter fuel payments when chatting to hacks at 35,000ft. The PM was on his second trip to the United States in as many months, trying to build his reputation as a foreign policy guy after a career focused only on the law.
And with a third trip to America pencilled in for the week after next, Starmer is certainly racking up the air miles. After a quick day at Donny races with his missus — where some punters were in full throat with their booing — he was back on the plane to Rome last night for good measure, building on dashes to Paris and Berlin last month. And this autumn is littered with summits in far-flung places like Brazil, Samoa and Azerbaijan.
Read More on Opinion At this rate, he is going to spend almost as long on his private jet as he will at his desk. Leaving aside the hypocrisy of the fact that Labour spent the last few years lambasting ministers for using the very same plane Starmer has so quickly come to love, there are other elephant traps for Premiers who grow fonder of first class than case work. Boris Johnson famously landed back from a gruelling trip addressing back-to-back Commonwealth, Nato and G7 gatherings — where he was lauded o.