Priti Patel attacks Nigel Farage over Zelensky comments

During the early days of the Gaza crisis, there was an unofficial refrain doing the rounds in the Foreign Office: ‘Foreign policy doesn’t win votes – but it can lose them.’ In recent days, the same could be said of Ukraine’s peace negotiations. The drama between Presidents Trump and Zelensky which played out in the Oval Office on Friday horrified Westminster. Both Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch were quick to signal their support for Zelensky, aware that – three years after the war with Russia began – public support for Ukraine remains rock solid.

That poses a difficulty for Nigel Farage. The Reform leader – who is keen to make much of his friendship with Trump – waited until Saturday morning to declare that the Oval Office argument was ‘regrettable’ and ‘will make Putin feel like the winner’. Appearing on LBC today, he said that Zelensky ‘played it very badly’, saying: ‘I wouldn’t expect a guest to be rude to me in my own house’.