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 transatlantic rift 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.
But, after Tehran launched retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, the PM performed a U-turn.
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.
Donald Trump tonight launched a fresh attack on Sir Keir Starmer , saying: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with’
It has not been confirmed which UK bases are being used, but 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.
The US President has also suggested America could use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, which can handle US heavy bombers.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump had said Sir Keir had ‘not been helpful’ and had put the Special Relationship in peril after failing to back his war with Iran.
The US President 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 Prime Minister’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.
The US President’s criticism of Sir Keir came as the death toll of US service personnel hit six and 18 service members had been seriously wounded. Americans have been urged to leave 15 countries across the Middle East.
Iran has attacked the US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with kamikaze drones. Iranian state media has claimed that a command and staff building at a US air base in Bahrain has also been destroyed.
President Trump has said America’s military response to the avenge American deaths – and damage to its embassy and Bahrain base – is imminent, warning the ‘hardest hits’ are coming today. Israel has also launched fresh strikes in Tehran and on Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, sending ground troops in this morning.
Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of undermining the Special Relationship by not allowing US bombers to launch their assault on Iran from British bases in Cyprus and Diego Garcia. Access has since been granted, but only for ‘defensive strikes’.
The Prime Minister said yesterday that he was right to delay, telling the Commons: ‘President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That is what I have done, and I stand by it’. Sir Keir said his Government ‘does not believe in regime change from the skies’.
Asked about claims the Labour leader’s decisions on Iran is because of pandering to Muslim voters, President Trump replied today: ‘It could be’.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Darren Jones said today that the US and Israel’s initial strikes in Iran did not ‘meet the test the Prime Minister has set out’.
‘I’ve seen the president’s words but that doesn’t really negate the fact that we make decisions, as I say, on the basis of legality and British interest’, the Labour minister said.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Sir Keir Starmer has ‘seriously undermined’ the UK’s relationship with the United States. He called action against Iran ‘completely justified’.
As Iran was bombed for a fourth day, it was also revealed:
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
Speaking to The Sun he said that Mr Starmer ‘has got his own difficulties’ in the UK and wished him luck.
‘The people of the UK, who I have a great relationship with, who I love, are sorry to hear it also… I don’t get it. But you know what? I just… I wish him a lot of luck’, he said.
Telling the PM what he needed to do he added: ‘Two very simple things.
‘Open up the North Sea. Immediately. Your energy prices are through the roof.
‘And stop people from coming in from foreign lands who hate you.
‘Open up the North Sea and stop people from pouring into his country from faraway lands.’
He said of the UK generally, Mr Trump said: ‘It’s also not such a recognisable country. I mean, you look at what happened over the last period of time and it’s very different.
‘London is a very different place, with a terrible Mayor. You have a terrible Mayor there, some terrible people.
‘But it’s a very different place.’
Sir Keir Starmer has seriously aggravated the White House by suggesting that the attack, which killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, was 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’.
Donald 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.
