PM takes centre stage amid calls for new era of diplomacy but declines to point finger at chaos in the White House

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

After Friday’s calamitous scenes in the Oval Office there were immediate calls for quick answers, new eras and pages of history being turned. Keir Starmer, it seems, is the person now forced to say: hang on, it is a bit more complicated than that.

The hastily arranged gathering of leaders at London’s Lancaster House on Sunday was undeniably dramatic, with the UK prime minister at its centre – including in the group photo, where he stood between Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.