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(Bloomberg) — Keir Starmer’s allies argue the crisis into which President Donald Trump has plunged Europe can be the making of the British prime minister. They also say what comes next could just as easily break him.

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Trump’s stunning announcement last month that he was starting talks with Russia to end its war in Ukraine, his subsequent fallout with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office and the extraordinary decision to shut off US intelligence-sharing with Kyiv have reverberated across the continent. 

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The UK, traditionally seen as a “bridge” between America and Europe, is confronting the most dangerous moment for the transatlantic security alliance in generations. But Starmer’s deft diplomacy in his dealings with Trump, European counterparts and Zelenskiy over the past 10 days have so far won him plaudits from domestic political opponents and from foreign leaders.

Labour ministers and aides said the shockwaves coming out of Washington have helped lift the prime minister onto safer ground after a stuttering start. They requested anonymity discussing their private views.

“The Ukraine crisis has turned what looked like a weakness into a strength, with the prime minister able to provide the sober pragmatic leadership the public want to see,” said Luke Tryl, UK director of the More in Common think tank. “Starmer has an opportunity to hammer home his advantage as someone who can deliver without chaos in the weeks to come.”

Elected in July, Starmer for months has grappled with the fallout from unpopular spending decisions, tax hikes on business and political controversies that saw his poll ratings plummet. Yet by forging a role as a leader in Europe — hiking defense expenditure, hosting counterparts in London and advising Zelenskiy through his blow-up with the US — his team believe the premier has gained fresh impetus at home and abroad which he must now build on.

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There are signs voters are taking notice. Labour edged upward in three polls this week. According to YouGov, Starmer’s personal rating improved to its best since September, albeit still down at minus 28 points. It helps Starmer that his position on Ukraine is clearer and more aligned with that of the British public than the parties of the right, especially the Reform UK Party led by Nigel Farage, who earlier this week blamed Zelenskiy for the White House fall-out.

Labour ministers said there’s been new direction from 10 Downing St. since a six-hour political cabinet meeting a month ago following Trump’s inauguration. In a changed world, Labour must focus on growth and security within an overarching goal of national renewal, Starmer told the room. He said there was an inexorable link between global and domestic insecurity in areas like migration and energy costs.

Afterward, the premier emailed his cabinet, stressing his determination to change the state and a political settlement he believes has let people down on areas from crime and migration to welfare, energy security and defense. 

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It was both a rallying cry and a wake-up call, one minister said. The premier, who’s staked out a position toward the right of his center-left party, made clear to his top team that he would make decisions that might be unpopular with some, and that he needed his cabinet fully on board. 

That could be seen as a warning to so-called “soft left” ministers — those between Labour’s right flank and far-left — of whom Energy Secretary Ed Miliband a former party leader, is the most prominent — who are already uneasy about the party’s direction on issues such as climate change. Last week, one of their exponents, Anneliese Dodds, resigned as development minister after Starmer diverted a chunk of foreign aid spending to defense. 

But Starmer’s team is calm about losing a cabinet attendee. There is a raft of talented young backbenchers ready to step in if other ministers don’t agree with the prime minister’s approach in coming ahead, an ally said. Another warned that in a Trumpian world where hard power mattered, the soft left would need to revisit its priorities.

Despite the praise for Starmer over Ukraine, he faces barely concealed pitfalls ahead — including the need for the UK and its European allies to deliver on military spending pledges.

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“We really do need to wake up now,” former Tory Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt told Bloomberg’s UK Politics podcast. “If we end up with lots of summits across Europe saying that we need to rearm but we fail to actually do what is required, we will be in a situation where we’ll be facing war.”

Keeping the premier and other European leaders up at night is the prospect Trump may ultimately side with Russia’s objectives on the outcome in Ukraine and rupture transatlantic relations. 

While European capitals are preparing for a world with a less reliable ally in the US, Britain’s closeness to the Americans leaves it uniquely exposed, due to the interconnectedness of its military, nuclear and intelligence capabilities, an official said. For that reason, despite Trump’s apparent trajectory, the US remains the only game in town for Britain, they added.

Starmer faces a moment of reckoning with his party, too. In the coming weeks, he will announce welfare cuts that will be worse than many Labour lawmakers expect, aides said. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will also pare back departmental spending to stabilize Britain’s fiscal position and avoid another bond market rout like the one that threatened her at the start of the year.

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Add to that the aid cut, an effort to publicize deportations of illegal migrants and a crackdown on crime and it’s likely Dodds won’t be the last resignation, another Labour lawmaker said.

But that sort of robust politics is essential if center-left parties are to survive in a world where the populist right is on the rise, Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney believes. He sees a political opportunity for Starmer to dominate the center-ground of British politics and dispatch Trumpian forces like Farage, who Labour paints as a fake patriot who equivocates on Russian President Vladimir Putin. That’s an attack line the left know resonates only too well after it was used to great effect on Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

At this early crossroads in Starmer’s premiership, the path ahead is fraught with danger but also opportunity, his aides believe. They hope Labour MPs will choose the latter.

“While Ukraine might get him a second hearing from the public, it will be domestic issues that determine the fate of his government,” Tryl said of Starmer.

—With assistance from Andrew Atkinson, James Woolcock, Caroline Hepker and Stephen Carroll.

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