Donald Trump tonight launched a fresh attack on Sir Keir Starmer, saying: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.’
The US President delivered a withering verdict on the Prime Minister as he continued to fume at Sir Keir for failing to back US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Speaking in the White House, Mr Trump said he was ‘not happy’ with Britain as he hit out at the PM’s block on the US using UK bases to launch attacks on Tehran.
In an apparent reference to Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands, the US President said: ‘That island… It’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land there.
‘It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised.’
Referring to Britain’s war-time PM, a bust of whom sits in the Oval Office, Mr Trump added: ‘This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.’
The US President went on to criticise the UK’s approach to the ‘stupid island’ as he issued a fresh blast at Sir Keir’s bid to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
‘I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have, that they gave away and took a 100-year lease,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office.
‘Having to do with, perhaps, indigenous people claiming the island that never even saw the island before. What’s that all about?’
He also repeated his frequent criticism of immigration and energy policies in the UK, saying: ‘The UK, what they’re doing with energy and what they’re doing with immigration is horrible.’
Mr Trump made the comments as he spoke about the support from European nations for US action in Iran, with the US President saying Spain had been ‘terrible’.
Madris has denied the US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory on Iran, with Spain’s socialist PM Pedro Sanches having condemned ‘an unjustified, dangerous military intervention outside of international law’.
Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on Sir Keir Starmer, saying: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with’
The US President delivered a withering verdict on the Prime Minister as he continued to fume at Sir Keir for failing to back US and Israeli strikes on Iran
The transatlantic rift between the UK and US has been sparked by Sir Keir’s initial refusal to allow America to use British military bases in their action against Iran over the weekend.
The PM later performed a U-turn after Tehran fired retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, with drones and missiles being launched towards British military bases and UK allies in the region.
Late on Sunday, Sir Keir said he had agreed to an American request to use UK bases to protect British nationals and allies in the Middle East.
The PM said he was allowing British bases to be used only for the ‘specific and limited defensive purpose’ of targeting Iran’s missile storage depots and launchers.
Mr Trump has previously referred to asking to use the military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, which can handle US heavy bombers.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US President said Sir Keir had ‘not been helpful’ and had put the Special Relationship in peril after failing to back his war with Iran.
Mr Trump said it was ‘very sad’ that relations between Britain and America are now ‘not like it used to be’.
Blaming Sir Keir directly, Mr Trump said: ‘He has not been helpful. I never thought I’d see that.
‘I never thought I’d see that from the UK. We love the UK. It’s very sad to see that the relationship is obviously not what it was.
‘This was the most solid relationship of all. And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in Europe.
‘It’s not going to matter, but (Sir Keir) should have helped… he should have. I mean, France has been great. They’ve all been great. The UK has been much different from others.’
He even suggested that the PM’s decision to ‘could be’ because he is pandering to Muslim voters as the Labour leader was accused of ‘pearl-clutching’ over US attacks on Iran that wiped out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mr Trump said that he ‘loves’ the UK and its people but added it is ‘not such a recognisable country’ anymore’.
‘Stop people from coming in from foreign lands who hate you’, he told the PM.
Downing Street insisted the US is still a ‘staunch’ ally, despite Mr Trump’s attacks on Sir Keir.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘The UK’s relationship with the US is we are staunch allies.
‘It is reflected in decades of that special relationship, whether it is on national security, on trade or beyond.’
Senior Cabinet minister Darren Jones earlier said the US and Israel’s initial strikes in Iran did not ‘meet the test the PM has set out’, as he faced questions about the extent of British support for America’s course of action.
Mr Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, said the UK-US relationship was ‘important’ when asked on Tuesday morning whether it had changed in the way Mr Trump suggested.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It has been for a long time and will continue to be, and we’re working in collaboration right now in the Middle East on defensive action to protect British citizens.
‘I think the president’s frustration, from the way he’s articulated it, has been that we were not involved in the initial American and Israeli strikes in Iran, but as the Prime Minister said to the House of Commons yesterday, we will only engage British armed forces when it’s in British interests, with a clear plan and on a legal basis.’
He told Sky News the US President’s words do not ‘negate the fact that we make decisions, as I say, on the basis of legality and British interest’.
In the Commons on Tuesday, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs the UK’s relationship with the US is ‘strong’ and ‘will endure into the future on both the economic and the security fronts’.
Chris Philp, speaking for the Conservative Party, said the US action against Iran was ‘completely justified’ and that Sir Keir had ‘seriously undermined’ the special relationship by failing to back it right away.
‘Through his actions, Keir Starmer has very seriously undermined our special relationship with the US, which has been the bedrock of our security for decades now,’ the shadow home secretary said.
Mr Jones told broadcasters the UK was not involved in the ‘first wave’ of strikes at the weekend because it ‘didn’t meet the test the Prime Minister’s set out’.
Sir Keir told his Cabinet on Tuesday that the decision on Sunday to allow the US to use UK bases for defensive strikes was ‘lawful and in the national interest’.
Donald Trump has today suggested that Sir Keir Starmer’s decision not to back is war with Iran is because he is pandering to Muslim voters and being swayed by ‘foreigners that hate you’.
The Pentagon vented its fury at Keir Starmer on Monday for his ‘pearl-clutching’ over the US attacks on Iran. The Pm told the Commons yesterday that he stood by his decision
A plume of smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran yesterday
Sir Keir has seriously aggravated the White House by suggesting that US and Israeli strikes on Iran were illegal and set to unravel.
In an outspoken intervention, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth praised Israel for its central role in the offensive – but savaged the legalistic approach taken by Britain and other European allies.
‘Israel has clear missions for which we are grateful,’ he said. ‘Capable partners are good partners. Unlike so many of our traditional partners who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, humming and hawing about the use of force.’
Sir Keir made a partial U-turn on Sunday after Iran lashed out at civilian targets in Gulf states and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, saying US jets would be able to fly from British bases for the ‘limited’ objective of destroying Iranian missile launchers and stockpiles.
He told MPs on Monday that an estimated 300,000 British nationals in the Gulf region were ‘at risk’ as Tehran targeted hotels and airports. But he ruled out going further, saying he would not participate in US-led attempts to bring about ‘regime change from the skies’.
Mr Trump said the PM took ‘far too long’ to lift the ban on US forces flying from RAF Fairford, in Gloucestershire, and Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands.
An airstrike on an Iranian police centre also damaged residential buildings around it in Niloofar square in central Tehran on Sunday
The US President said he was ‘very disappointed in Keir’ over his attempts to hand sovereignty of the strategically vital Diego Garcia to Mauritius.
Sir Keir acknowledged that Mr Trump had ‘expressed his disagreement’, but insisted it was in Britain’s national interest to abide strictly by international law.
He told MPs repeatedly that any military action had to have a ‘lawful basis’ and a ‘viable thought-through plan’ – and suggested the US had neither. Downing Street said the PM’s commitment to upholding international law was ‘iron-clad’.
Kemi Badenoch suggested that the PM was distancing himself from US actions on Iran to avoid further alienating Muslim voters and so-called ‘progressives’ who deserted Labour for the Greens in last week’s by-election. She accused Sir Keir of trying to placate voters ‘whose political loyalties are swayed by conflicts in the Middle East, not the British national interest’.
‘It isn’t international law or principle,’ she said. ‘It’s pure, partisan, political calculations from a party that has surrendered its right to govern our country.’
She added: ‘Why is it that under this Prime Minister, international law always seems to be at odds with our national interest?’ The Tory leader said British people ‘will be wondering why our country’s response has been so weak’.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the PM’s dithering was ‘pathetic’, adding: ‘Our Prime Minister is not a leader, he’s a follower, and he looks weak in the eyes of everybody.’
The PM marched against the Iraq War in 2003 and declared it illegal. He told MPs on Monday he was determined to prevent Britain being dragged into another legally questionable conflict in the Gulf.
‘We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons,’ he said.
‘Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan.
‘President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to join the initial strikes,’ he said. ‘But it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest, and that is the judgment I made. I stand by it.’
Former Tory security minister Tom Tugendhat, who served in the Iraq war, said there was ‘zero comparison’ with the current situation as there are no plans for a UK ground invasion, although President Trump later said he was prepared to put ‘boots on the ground’.
A legal opinion drawn up the PM’s controversial Attorney-General Lord Hermer ruled that the assault on Iran could not be deemed self-defence despite the regime’s long history of attacks on the West, including targets in the UK.
