Things were already going very badly for Keir Starmer as the New Year dawned. He was embattled on multiple fronts including taxation, immigration, economic stagnation and rumoured leadership bids from within and beyond the cabinet. Then on 3 January it worsened, when Donald Trump launched his spectacular raid on Caracas, kidnapping the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in order to bring him to trial in New York on charges of drug trafficking and “narco-terrorism”. Trump also announced his plan to “run” Venezuela for the foreseeable future and to extract its oil for the benefit of its people and that of the United States. This constituted a serious violation of Venezuelan sovereignty and, thus, of international law.

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