Keir Starmer told Nigel Farage to stop “fawning over Putin” as the pair clashed over the Ukraine crisis. The prime minister was responding to a Commons question from the Reform UK leader about how many British troops may be needed to keep the peace if a deal to end the war is agreed.

Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat has indirectly dismissed Keir Starmer’s idea to deploy peacekeeping troops to Ukraine. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov attacked European leaders who are still supporting Ukraine three years after Putin launched his brutal invasion.