By Owen Evans
President Donald Trump has criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and warned that the historic U.S.–UK Special Relationship is under strain.
“He has not been helpful. I never thought I‘d see that. I never thought I’d see that from the UK,” Trump told British newspaper The Sun on March 3.
The U.S. president also urged Britain to “stop people from coming in from foreign lands who hate you.”
Trump said he never expected to see the once “most solid of all” alliances in such difficulty. The Special Relationship between the UK and the United States dates back to the end of the Second World War and the early Cold War period.
According to a report by think tank the Institute for Government, Britain’s close relationship with the United States “is not just based on relationships between presidents and prime ministers, but on deep intelligence, defence and security working relationships.”
In an interview with The Telegraph on March 2, Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Starmer over reports that the U.K. had blocked the use of the British base in Diego Garcia for potential U.S. strikes on Iran.
Trump said Starmer “took far too long” to change his mind.
“That’s probably never happened between our countries before,” he added.
When asked about the remarks, Treasury Minister Darren Jones laughed when pressed for comment, according to Times Radio Breakfast presenter Kate McCann on X on March 3. McCann said Jones described the U.S.–UK relationship as “important.”
Major attacks by the United States and Israel were launched on Iran on Feb. 28 after U.S.–Iran nuclear talks ended without a breakthrough. Trump signaled that the U.S.–Israeli military assault on Iranian targets could continue for weeks.
Trump has said the operation’s goal is to eliminate threats from Iran and ensure the regime can never have a nuclear weapon.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC on Monday that there were an estimated 300,000 British citizens in Gulf countries. A total of 102,000 Britons have registered their presence in the Middle East with the UK government.
British military bases in Cyprus were hit by Iranian drones during the escalation, though no casualties were immediately reported at the British Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri.
Starmer said on Sunday that he has accepted a U.S. request to use British bases for defensive strikes against Iranian missiles in storage depots or launchers.
“We have taken the decision to accept this request—to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region, killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk, and hitting countries that have not been involved,” he added.
He said in a March 1 statement that the United Kingdom “was not involved in the strikes on Iran. ”
“We have British jets in the air as part of coordinated defensive operations which have already successfully intercepted Iranian strikes,” he said
In Parliament on March 2, Starmer told the Commons that 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. ”
“This Government do not believe in regime change from the skies,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Fox News interview aired on March 2 that the U.S.–Israel military operation against Iran will not be “an endless war,” but that it could “take some time.”
Netanyahu also said that he doesn’t expect the military campaign—aimed at neutralizing Iran’s nuclear threat—to drag on for years.
“You’re not going to have an endless war,” the Israeli leader told the news outlet, saying the Iranian regime is at “the weakest point that it’s been since it hijacked Iran from the brave Iranian people 47 years ago.”
“This is going to be a quick and decisive action, and we’re going to create the conditions, first for the Iranian people to get control of their destiny, to form their own democratically elected government, which will make Iran a different Iran altogether.”
Aldgra Fredly and Reuters contributed to this report.
