US President Donald Trump on Tuesday escalated his criticism of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for initially not allowing US warplanes to use British bases to strike Iran, saying: “This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.”Trump said that the historical relationship between the United States and Britain is “no longer what it was before,” amid a diplomatic dispute over the US-Israeli strikes on Iran. “The United Kingdom has been completely uncooperative,” he said while sitting next to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. “I’m not happy with the UK,” he said. “It took three or four days for us to decide where we could land.”Starmer, who told Parliament on Monday that his government “does not believe in regime change from the sky”, angered Trump by initially refusing to have any role in Washington’s war with Iran.
Starmer later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for “specific and limited defense purposes”.This incident angered Trump, who had previously told the British newspaper The Sun: “This was the most solid relationship ever. Now we have very strong relations with other countries in Europe,” and he specifically mentioned France and Germany.Starmer has developed a warm relationship with Trump, who received an unprecedented second state visit to Britain last year.
The so-called special relationship between the World War II allies is built largely on long-term defense cooperation and intelligence sharing.However, any potential military action in the Middle East is politically sensitive in the UK following former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s disastrous support for the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.Trump’s comments to The Sun came before Starmer announced on Tuesday that he would send helicopters with anti-drone capabilities and the warship HMS Dragon to bolster Cyprus’ defences, as part of its “defense operations”.
The move came after a British Royal Air Force base on the eastern Mediterranean island was attacked early Monday by Iranian-made drones, one of which hit the runway, according to officials.“The UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and the British military personnel stationed there,” Starmer said on X, adding: “We will always act in the interests of the UK and our allies.”Trump told The Sun that Starmer “wasn’t helpful,” adding: “I never thought I would see that.”
I never thought I’d see that from the UK. We love the United Kingdom.” “It’s just a much different kind of relationship… It’s very sad to see that the relationship is clearly not what it was,” he said.Government Minister Darren Jones defended Starmer’s decision to engage in military action only when there is a “legal basis” and a “clear plan” that is in the UK’s national interest. He added: “This is why we did not participate in the initial strikes in Iran.”
He said that two British bases, one in Gloucestershire in western England and the British-American base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, have now been allowed to be used by the Americans.“We all remember Iraq’s mistakes, and we have learned those lessons,” Starmer said in Parliament on Monday. He stressed that the Akrotiri base in Cyprus “is not used by American bombers.”In response to a question about Trump’s criticism, Starmer’s spokesman said that the United Kingdom and the United States remain strong allies.
“This is reflected in decades of that special relationship, whether it is regarding national security, trade or beyond,” the spokesman said.British politicians are haunted by the 2003 Iraq War, in which 179 British soldiers were killed. An official British investigation into the conflict later concluded that Blair had acted on faulty intelligence when he decided to join the war.Starmer faces a “very tight diplomatic tightrope” with the United States that “remains crucial in the context of Ukraine and Greenland,” Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group, told AFP.
