One moment you’re shaking Elmo’s hand in a city hall, the next you’re standing on the world’s biggest stage with the weight of the liberal order on your shoulders.
Keir Starmer, who has campaigned on the slogan of ‘change’ for the past six weeks, is set to discover just how intense politics can be.
No one close to Britain’s new prime minister would claim he had won on Thursday. But that he will emerge as the strongest leader in the room at the annual summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) a few days later is partly due to the pace of events beyond his control.
