The PM has had plenty of time to get comfortable on his plane (Picture: AP)
Sir Keir Starmer may only have been Prime Minister for a little over five months, but he has certainly packed in plenty of foreign trips.
In 15 trips, he’s visited 13 different countries, including France, the US and Germany three times each.
The PM flew most of the way around the world in October to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa – spending about as much time on a plane as he did in the Pacific island nation.
In total, Metro worked out Sir Keir has travelled around 75,000 miles on international trips since stepping through the doors of Downing Street on July 5.
That includes trips to the Euro 2024 final, the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics, and a flying visit to Cop29 in Azerbaijan.
And there’s more to come – in a matter of days, the PM will be flying over to Tallinn for a Joint Expeditionary Force summit at the start of next week.
Let’s break down his travels around the planet.
The many international trips the Prime Minister has made in the past five months (Picture: Metro Graphics)
July 9-11: London to Washington and back (7,330 miles)
Mere days after winning the general election with a landslide of seats, Sir Keir made his first appearance on the world stage.
It was a high-profile one too, the 2024 Nato summit in Washington, DC, which involved meetings with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olof Scholz.
After a couple of days, it was back to London. Then a spell of European travel to Berlin and Paris – twice each – for sports events and more chats with leaders, and a trip to Dublin before…
September 13: London to Washington and back (7,330 miles)
Sir Keir surrounded by journalists on his way to Washington DC in September (Picture: Reuters)
Sir Keir made the same trip again just a couple of months later, and this time for only one day.
He was keen to get Joe Biden to green-light the use of missiles by Ukraine to fire deep inside Russia – but the US President didn’t make that final decision until later.
For the Prime Minister, it was back to London, then Rome, then New York for the UN General Assembly, then Brussels and Berlin until…
October 24-26: London to Apia and back, via Canada (20,400 miles)
The trip to Samoa was easily the biggest single chunk of this series of trips.
Pictures taken of the PM at the Commonwealth meeting show him looking a little dazed – unsurprisingly, given the enormous flight to get there which included a fuelling stop in Winnipeg.
It was a relatively quick visit too. Sir Keir followed it up with trips to Budapest, Paris and Baku, and then…
November 18-19: London to Rio de Janeiro and back (11,528 miles)
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil was the venue for this year’s G20 summit, and the destination of another big flight for the PM.
He became the first British Prime Minister to meet the Chinese president since 2018 when he spoke with Xi Jinping, and also chatted with Narendra Modi of India and Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba.
Then, in the past couple of days he has made journeys to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus – with Estonia just around the corner.
A more casual PM on his way to Rio de Janeiro (Picture: Stefan Rousseau/Pool/AFP)
A government spokesperson said: ‘Britain is back under this government and since coming into office the Prime Minister has begun to tackle the most pressing foreign policy priorities for the British people.
‘This includes responding to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East alongside rebuilding our international standing after the last fourteen years.
‘Our Plan for Change sets out that national security is the foundation of economic stability at home.
‘By being front footed overseas, we have delivered a record breaking £63 billion of new investment into our country which will transform communities across the UK, and we will continue to build global relations to grow our economy and deliver for the British people.’
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