Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (right) and US President Donald Trump shake hands following a meeting at Chequers, in Aylesbury, central England, on September 18, 2025. Photo / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, AFP
United States President Donald Trump escalated his criticism of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer today, in a fresh indication of how strained the two allies’ relationship has become over the US President’s efforts to enlist the United Kingdom’s help in its strikes against Iran.
Starmer - who declined a US request to use British bases for offensive operations against the Islamic republic - has “not been helpful”, Trump said in an interview with the Sun tabloid.
“It’s very sad to see that the relationship is obviously not what it was.”
It’s the latest in a series of jibes Trump has made towards the Labour Party leader since he pushed back against Trump’s designs on Greenland earlier in the year.
The US President has repeatedly criticised Starmer’s deal ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius - something he did again in his Sun interview - and has also dismissed Britain’s role alongside American troops in the Afghanistan war.
Starmer will recognise a familiar pattern of Trump hurling barbs at allies after a falling out over policy.
He regularly mocks Emmanuel Macron’s accent, and in January said of the French President “nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon”.
The same month, he accused Mark Carney of ingratitude after the Canadian Prime Minister urged mid-sized powers to club together against aggressive superpowers. “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark,” he said.
Since coming to power in July 2024, Starmer has spent much of his time trying to charm and appease Trump, granting the US President an unprecedented second state visit.
Yet this week he drew a clear line in the sand: Britain will not join its closest military partner in offensive action against Iran.
“This Government does not believe in regime change from the skies” were the words from America’s main European ally less than 48 hours after the US and Israel began strikes.
Starmer on Tuesday pushed back against Trump’s criticism that he was slow to authorise the use of British bases in the operation, saying in the House of Commons that the UK’s “actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan”.
While the British Prime Minister didn’t explicitly say it, the corollary of his remarks is that he doesn’t think the US bombardment of Tehran is the result of careful planning.
As for the legality, Starmer was clear on the advice he’d received ahead of the initial bombardment.
“I will not commit our military personnel to unlawful action,” he said.
“Starmer has long tried to walk a tight line with Trump but today he’s made it clear,” Ben Judah, a former adviser for Starmer’s Government who helped steer Britain’s response to US action against Iran’s nuclear sites last year, said in an interview.
“He doesn’t believe in regime change from the air and he doesn’t believe US aims in Iran are clearly defined.”
Starmer’s position has eroded the so-called special relationship between the two nations, with Trump telling the Telegraph yesterday that he was “disappointed in Keir”.
Later yesterday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said, without naming the UK, that “capable partners are good partners, unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force”.
The repeated disagreements over Greenland, the Chagos Islands and tariffs have been resolved in a phone call between the two leaders.
Yet it was a case of forgiven but not forgotten, prompting Starmer to deliver a pivotal speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he moved away from his long-held stance of refusing to choose between Washington and Brussels.
Instead, he urged Europe to deepen its interdependence and end its over-reliance on American military support.
The subtleties of that foreign policy shift have now become more explicit.
“Britain has an America problem: our most intimate ally has become profoundly unpredictable and erratic,” said Judah.
In the latest disagreement, Starmer declined a US request to use British bases at Fairford in the English county of Gloucestershire, and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for offensive strikes against Iran over concerns about the legality of the operations.
Despite Trump’s criticism, “it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest”, Starmer told the Commons. “That is what I’ve done, and I stand by it.”
The Prime Minister said he approved a separate American request to use the bases to conduct operations for what he described as “specific and limited” defensive purposes by targeting Iranian missile facilities.
Starmer said the change in his position came because Iran had launched “indiscriminate” attacks on Britain’s Gulf allies as well as putting thousands of Britons in the region at risk.
The UK Government published legal advice justifying the use of the bases for defensive operations.
“It is simply not possible to shoot down every Iranian missile or drone after they’ve been launched: The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source,” Starmer said.
“The use of British bases is limited to the agreed defensive purposes we are not joining the US and Israeli offensive strikes.”
Starmer’s reluctance to back Trump’s action is as much a political calculation as a legal one.
His ruling Labour Party still bears deep scars from former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s controversial decision to support the invasion of Iraq more than two decades ago.
His party, and many British voters, are wary of another Middle East war and Starmer has spent much of the year to date trying to suppress leadership challenges from within his party.
“We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons,” Starmer said yesterday.
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