Keir Starmer’s spokesperson has hit back at Vladimir Putin’s latest threats towards Europe as “yet more Kremlin claptrap”.

The Russian president caused alarm on Tuesday when he told reporters: “We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready now. They are on the side of war.”

It was a particularly bizarre warning considering he was hosting a US delegation to unpack new European counterproposals to Donald Trump’s latest peace plan – which the Kremlin refused to accept.

Starmer was then asked by Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin if the UK was ready for war against Russia during prime minister’s questions.

The PM replied: “I updated the House on this last week on the attempts to get a lasting peace.

“We all know that Putin is the

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