The prime minister wants to keep everyone happy. He has been loath to criticize Trump, has warmed up Britain’s post-Brexit partnership with the European Union, avowedly backed Kyiv and thawed ties with China. At a time of geopolitical upheaval, he is attempting to squeeze Britain into an impossibly tight Venn diagram.

If there is a ceasefire without a backstop, it will simply give him the opportunity to wait and to come again,’ Keir Starmer warned on the flight to Washington, D.C.