Keir Starmer UN speech - live: PM to meet Donald Trump before tonight’s address amid Middle East conflict

Sir Keir Starmer is set to meet Donald Trump in New York before delivering a speech to world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

As part of a raft of bilateral meetings, he will discuss ongoing conflicts between Israel, Lebanon and Palestine with world leaders and US presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The prime minister will use tonight’s address to say that the UK is returning to “responsible global leadership” because it is in British interests to address problems around the world.

The 79th UN summit comes as the Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out conflict and the bloody war in Ukraine grinds on.

It follows an intervention at the UN Security Council where he tore into Russia over its actions in Ukraine, saying Vladimir Putin was treating his own citizens as “bits of meat to fling into the grinder” in the conflict.

Sir Keir has been embroiled in a donotations row after borrowing an £18m penthouse flat from Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli during the general election and to film a Covid video. But Downing Street claims he did not break the rules.

Sir Keir Starmer recorded a Covid-era broadcast urging the public to work from home from a Labour donor’s £18 million penthouse.

The Christmas message, broadcast in December 2021, was reportedly filmed at a flat belonging to Lord Waheed Alli — a donor who has handed hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Labour Party over the last two decades.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has the full story:

The Christmas broadcast aired on December 13 2021, the same day new Covid guidance urging people to work from home came into force.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner were among five cabinet ministers to attend a Labour Party conference