Donald Trump has publicly rebuked British prime minister Keir Starmer for blocking U.S. strikes on Iran from UK bases.
The president told the Telegraph on Monday he was “very disappointed” in Starmer for blocking him from using Diego Garcia, the Chagos Islands base, saying this was unlike anything that had “happened between our countries before.” The Labour PM had cited international law as a justification, but later relented and allowed the U.S. access for “specific and limited defensive purposes.”
This change of mind “took far too long,” Trump complained.
He went even further in an interview with the Sun on Tuesday, suggesting that Starmer—who is no doubt aware of the UK military’s shortfalls—“could” have been pandering to Muslim voters by not backing the war against Iran and advising him to “stop people from coming in from foreign lands who hate you.”
Reform, whose leader Nigel Farage gets on famously well with Trump, has not been at all surprised to see relations worsen. Party chairman David Bull said on Tuesday that “Starmer has succeeded in wrecking the UK’s reputation at home and abroad,” adding:
World leaders, including Trump, are disowning him. He is not a leader. He is a technocratic lawyer, weak and spineless without principles or vision.
But top Labour official Darren Jones has stressed “the U.S. and UK relationship is important” and “operationally that continues.”
With hollowed-out forces and empty coffers, Britain can scarcely afford to posture abroad—let alone fight another war in the Middle East.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
