Don't be Surprised by Daily Mail Ukraine Approach

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On Saturday night, there were ripples of excitement in certain corners of the internet as the latest Mail on Sunday splash dropped. It showed a smiling Sir Keir Starmer, with the UK prime minister’s arm draped over Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s shoulder. Above them was the all-caps headline: “Now stop the state visit for ‘bully’ Trump’.

Lest anyone think this was the often more liberal Sunday paper striking out on its own, as it did in opposing Brexit, Monday’s Daily Mail front page depicted King Charles shaking President Zelenskyy’s hand. The headline read: “The King’s Show of Solidarity”. The copy below described US President Donald Trump having a “meltdown” in the Oval Office 48 hours earlier.

In media terms, the backing for Zelenskyy is unequivocal. The criticism of Trump is damning.

I was somewhat surprised that people were surprised by the stance taken across the Mail titles. It has taken a stand before, not least with its famous “Murderers: the Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us” splash about the Stephen Lawrence murder.

I could also find plenty to criticise the paper for. For example, its “Enemies of the People” front page, depicting the Supreme Court Judges as dangerous democracy damagers, was a disgrace. It put those judges’ safety at risk. Yet to imagine that the paper would automatically endorse Trump is totally misguided.

“Sophisticated” Daily Mail

“The Mail has always been more sophisticated than its critics give it credit for,” one of the paper’s contributors told me. “It contains multiple voices often arguing against each other (Lucy Letby being one example). Peter Hitchens is pretty anti Ukraine, I think, everyone else pro.” They also noted that as the UK is in Europe “the Russian threat is more pronounced here. Plus we’ve had Litvenenko and Salisbury- Russians killing people on our territory with hugely dangerous poisons.”

It all adds up to a popular newspaper taking the pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia (and therefore Trump,) stance it has, which Another contributor told me they were proud of.

I suspect the latest comments by vice president JD Vance to Sean Hannity, in which he sneers at about the idea of UK and French peacekeeping forces, dismissing them as “20k troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”, are not going to go down with the Daily Mail editors or readership either, who remember the bodybags coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq. There is already a quick turnaround story up on MailOnline.

There are always layers to things though. While I don’t doubt there is sincerity in the Daily Mail’s anger and editorial line, there probably is a little mischief-making going on as well. Calling on Sir Keir Starmer to cancel President Trump’s State Visit let’s the right-wing newspaper put the Labour prime minister under a bit of pressure whilst also backing a cause supported by many Brits.

Patriotism? Populism? Troublemaking? Like it or loathe it, on Ukraine, the Mail is doing the right think and following the tabloid textbook to perfection.