As his grip on No10 fades, Starmer looks increasingly isolated at the G7 summit

A.As the second day of the G7 Summit draws to a close, one thing is clear: Sir Keir Starmer’s presence this week is very different to last year.

When the Prime Minister arrived in Ottawa for the G7 in 2025, he was widely seen as the man who could salvage NATO’s volatile relationship with Donald Trump and was leading the way with Macron when it came to Ukraine.

Although the prime minister’s domestic performance was still up and down, his international presence was strong enough to earn him significant points in his favour.

But this year the prime minister appears to be a much less leading figure. Amid growing questions about his political future, the Prime Minister has spent the G7 Summit keeping his distance from the media who have so far traveled with him to France.

Not only was the Prime Minister’s typical briefing to journalists traveling with him postponed (from its typical timing on the plane until the second day of the trip), it was also cut short. The Prime Minister raised eyebrows among the traveling media contingent when he rushed off after just five questions as a result of a scheduling conflict.

Downing Street insisted the briefing had been rescheduled and said it was simply a result of the timing slip. However, this disorder did not indicate a government controlling the agenda.

It’s tough timing for Starmer, who has seen the Ministry of Defense descend into chaos with the condemning resignations of Defense Secretary John Healey and veterans minister Al Carns just days before the summit.

To make matters worse, the summit is expected to take place just days before the Makerfield by-election, in which Andy Burnham is expected to return to Westminster to replace Sir Keir as Prime Minister and Labor leader. Other leaders at the summit will be acutely aware that this year’s G7 may be their last.

Meanwhile, Britain’s failure to put forward a credible defense plan (or at least one accepted by Starmer’s own government) has marked the Prime Minister as a liability when it comes to Trump.

While Starmer insists he has had a number of good meetings with the US president, taking pains to make it clear that the pair “get on really well”, the absence of a bilateral meeting on the summit agenda suggests Sir Keir is simply not a priority.

The prime minister may be right that relations between him and the US president are beginning to thaw after an increasingly turbulent few months. But Trump’s focus may be elsewhere.

The US president is moving closer to negotiating a peace deal with Iran; is the main focus of this week’s summit and is an issue on which the Prime Minister is firmly on the sidelines.

Part of this is by design. The Prime Minister has sensibly avoided being drawn into the highly unpopular Iran war, despite Trump’s anger. But it is clear that Britain is still trying to lead in some respects with its plan to launch a demining mission with France in the Strait of Hormuz.

But what is clear at this summit, where Iran dominates the agenda, is that Britain remains out of peace deal negotiations – perhaps as a result of Britain’s disdain for supporting the US.

Asked whether Sir Keir had been shown details of the peace deal, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said in a briefing to reporters on Tuesday: “The Americans have talked a lot about when they expect the details of this deal to be published, but what we are absolutely clear about is that this is an important step forward towards ensuring regional stability and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.”

In particular, there is no suggestion that the UK would have any knowledge of what the deal involves, beyond what has been made public by the US administration.

But when it comes to Ukraine, the prime minister is still trying to show that he is leading the way. On Tuesday morning, he announced a new package of sanctions against Russian shadow fleet ships and the strengthening of Ukraine’s nuclear energy infrastructure with a £210 million export finance package.

This is not an insignificant package, and it was one that was warmly welcomed by Volodymyr Zelensky. But this has been overshadowed by Starmer’s refusal to budge on defense spending and the general image that he is not taking the issue seriously enough.

The Prime Minister’s presence at the summit so far can be summed up by an image circulating on social media on Tuesday. G7 leaders were photographed at the roundtable but Starmer was nowhere to be seen.

In fact, his absence was due to taking questions from the media (and trying to fend off the anger of 15 journalists when he had to leave midway). But for a G7 summit that could be its last, this image seemed extremely appropriate.