Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure after a livid Donald Trump publicly turned on the PM (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure after a livid Donald Trump publicly turned on the Prime Minister, delivering a bruising blow to the so-called “special relationship” over Britain’s stance on military action against Iran. The US president has said he is “very disappointed” with Starmer after Britain initially blocked American forces from using the Diego Garcia military base to launch strikes against Iranian targets. GB News co-host Andrew Pierce told viewers: “We’ve got some extraordinary breaking news. Donald Trump has told the Telegraph he is ‘very disappointed’ in Sir Keir Starmer for initially blocking him from using Diego Garcia military base to carry out strikes on Iran.”
Pierce added pointedly: “That’s a special relationship in a bad place.” Security editor Mark White said the dispute cuts to the core of Starmer’s leadership during a rapidly escalating crisis in the Middle East. White said: “This goes to the heart of the kind of provocation that we’ve had from this government, Keir Starmer in particular, in the two public statements that he’s made when he’s continuing effectively to sit on the fence.”
The US president has said he is “very disappointed” with Starmer (Image: Getty)
He accused the Prime Minister of repeatedly distancing Britain from US military action while quietly allowing limited involvement behind the scenes.
White continued: “He’s not been involved in the offensive actions in Iran, but jets are up in a defensive capacity and then again last night another statement begins by saying how we’re not involved in any of the offensive operations.”
Although Starmer has now agreed to allow the US to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, White said the decision came with heavy restrictions — and too late to calm Trump’s anger.
“He’s relented,” White said. “He is allowing the US to use two of our bases but again he added a caveat to that. It’s limited to strikes to take out the likes of missile launchers, so not decapitation strikes against the regime hierarchy for instance.”
According to White, Trump’s frustration has been building for weeks. “And it’s clear Donald Trump is absolutely livid,” he said.
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“Because he had asked for the US to be able to use Diego Garcia to launch these strikes that they have been planning contingencies for some months.
“Keir Starmer clearly and his government had said no,” he said. “I think that’s what prompted about three or four weeks ago this intervention from Donald Trump when he called it a very bad deal.”
Trump has also reignited fury over Britain’s proposed handover of the Chagos Islands, a move he has repeatedly criticised.
“He said that it was not a good deal to be handing back a group of islands to a country that no legitimate claim on them,” White said.
With Britain now pausing the Chagos deal, White suggested Trump’s latest intervention may have killed it entirely.
“Given that this government has said that this deal would not go through and indeed paused it until the situation has sorted itself out with regard to whether the US is in agreement with it or not,” he said.
“With what President Trump has said today I can’t see that Chagos deal can possibly go through.”
