Joe Biden launched a scathing verdict on successor Donald Trump in his first major interview with a UK broadcaster since leaving the White House. The 81-year-old, nursing a slight cold, did not hold back in an interview with Radio 4's Nick Robinson - although he did not name the billionaire.

Pressed about the current administration's treatment of US allies, Mr Biden condemned Mr Trump's calls for the US to take back the Panama Canal, acquire Greenland, make Canada the 51st state, and in particular his evisceration of Volodymyr Zelensky in the glare of the world's media, he said: "I find it sort of beneath America, the way that took place.

He said: "What the hell's going on here? What president ever talks like that? That's not who we are.

"We're about freedom, democracy, opportunity, not about confiscation."

Asked whether attempts to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine by pressuring the latter into giving up territory amounted to "modern day appeasement", Mr Biden agreed.

He explained: "Listen to what Putin said when he talked about why he believed as part of Mother Russia. He believes he has historical rights to Ukraine.

"He talks about Eastern Europe. What this man wants to do is re-establish the Warsaw Pact.

"He can't stand the fact that the Russian dictatorship that he runs, that the Soviet Union, has collapsed, and anybody thinks he's going to stop it's just foolish.

"I just don't understand how people think that if we allow a dictator, a thug, to decide he's going to take significant portions of land that aren't his, that's going to satisfy him."