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Britain’s outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been awarded France’s highest honour, in recognition of his work on the security of Europe and Ukraine.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he presented Starmer with the Legion d’honneur on Monday in Paris, where he was attending a summit of Ukraine’s allies.
Starmer, who has been prime minister since winning a landslide election victory in July 2024, is the first UK prime minister to receive the award.
He is due to leave office within days after losing the confidence of his governing Labour party over a slew of domestic policy U-turns that hit his popularity.
Read Also: ‘I’m The Boss’ – President Trump Boasts To G7 Counterparts
In contrast, he is held in high regard by many foreign leaders on issues from Ukraine to forging closer European ties.
Starmer is due to be replaced as Labour leader and prime minister by Andy Burnham, a veteran former minister, who is also a pro-European centrist.
Starmer, 63, attended the annual July 14 military parade in central Paris as a guest of Macron, alongside other Ukraine allies.
Presenting the former human rights lawyer and chief state prosecutor with the legion d’honneur, Macron praised his “personal leadership” and “commitments” to “the security of Europe, Ukraine, the bilateral relationship” and his “decency”.
Starmer and Labour’s return to power, after 14 years in opposition, marked a sea-change in relations with Britain’s closest European allies, including France.
Under the Conservatives, Britain left the European Union after a divisive 2016 referendum on membership.
The G7 summit of world powers in France is being chaired by President Emmanuel Macron as host but on Wednesday his guest US President Donald Trump left no doubt over who he believed was in charge.
“I’m the boss,” Trump said as he strode in to the morning session of the last day of the three-day G7 summit, with the other leaders already in their seats.
Amid laughter, Macron appeared to take the comment with good humour. “How are you?” the French president asked.
“Good, thank you,” replied Trump, a tycoon before becoming president who famously hosted the TV show “The Apprentice” with its catchphrase “You’re fired!”, as he finally took his seat.
Fresh from clinching an accord to end the war with Iran and celebrating his 80th birthday, Trump’s presence has dominated the summit in the spa town of Evian on Lake Geneva.
French officials will be satisfied that the mercurial US president has stayed for the entire event and signed on to the G7 communique — in contrast to the previous gathering in Canada, where he left early.
In an unusual gesture, Macron has invited Trump to dinner at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris after the summit winds down on Wednesday afternoon.
Macron, under pressure to show he is not fawning over Trump, has already said the evening at Versailles will not be a “gala” dinner.
President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to respond after he accused Iran of shooting down a US military helicopter the previous night, hours after he said negotiations to end the Middle East war were in their final stages.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and its chief negotiator in talks with Washington, meanwhile warned the United States on Tuesday against breaking its “commitments”.
The comments came a day after Iran and Israel halted attacks that threatened to reignite the regional war, which was sparked by US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
