On His Majesty's Service - John Healey MP supports Norwegian troops

In his role as UK Defence Minister, he donned high fashion black ski wear and crash helmet and began observing what was going on from the Norwegian side of the 123 miles-border with Vladimir Putin's state.

The Honourable Member for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough cut quite the dashing figure as he mounted a snowmobile.

It had all the hallmarks of an 007 film.

After all, there had been snow and ski chases galore over generations of Bond films, including On Her Majesty's Secret Service, (1969) The Spy Who Loved Me (1979) For Your Eyes Only (1981) A View to a Kill (1985) The Living Daylights (1987) The World is Not Enough (1999) Die Another Day (2002) and Spectre (2015.)

Thankfully there were no bullets being fired in the real-life sequence, as he drove the snowmobile on the ice along the Pasvik River.

From there he could view the arctic terrain over to the Russian municipality of Pechenga, an important area for the recruitment of front line soldiers in their war with Ukraine.

Mr Healey's visit to the northernmost area of Norway wasn't just for a photo opp.

At a time of global insecurity following Donald Trump's controversial criticism of Ukraine's leadership, he wanted to demonstrate that Great Britain would continue supporting its NATO allies in Europe.

"This is NATO's front line," the Minister said. "This region reminds us that Russia is a threat well beyond Ukraine."

While there, he climbed a watch-tower to view the Russian town of Nikel and chatted with army conscripts at Pasvik border station, guarding NATO's northernmost land border with Russia.

Mr Healey (65) had talks with Tore Sandvik, his Norwegian counterpart – and the location of their meeting was so close to the Russian border it won't have been lost on the Kremlin.

It was less than 40 miles from the base of some of Russia's nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines.

At a press conference afterwards, he said it was the duty of Britain and NATO to "keep Ukraine in the fight" until they can achieve long term peace.

He applauded the bravery of the Ukrainian people and said the war could be ended immediately if Putin ordered his troops to withdraw.

Britain was ready to play a part to provide security guarantees after the war ended, he said.

Mr Healey, who visited President Volodymyr Zelensky in Odessa on the second day of his Defence job, insisted it was in Trump's interests that a durable peace was negotiated.