{"id":373480,"date":"2026-04-03T19:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/373480\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T19:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:44:09","slug":"relationship-with-trump-may-be-beyond-repair-keir-starmer-told-keir-starmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/373480\/","title":{"rendered":"Relationship with Trump may be beyond repair, Keir Starmer told | Keir Starmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer has been warned his relationship with Donald Trump<\/a> may be beyond repair after the US president derided the prime minister for consulting his team about military decisions, in a mocking impersonation.<\/p>\n

In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to imitate Starmer in a weak voice<\/a> during an Easter lunch speech at the White House, and said the UK was \u201cnot our best\u201d ally.<\/p>\n

The episode is Trump\u2019s latest broadside at Starmer and the UK\u2019s \u201cold\u201d aircraft carriers after the prime minister declined to let the US use British military bases for its initial strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

Following the latest attack on Starmer, diplomatic and political figures said he was right to brush off the criticism but added that the relationship was very damaged and he would need to redouble efforts to built international relations elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The US president said the UK \u201cshould be our best\u201d ally but had not been during the Iran war, accusing Starmer of prevaricating over sending aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n

During his speech, the president said: \u201cI asked [the] UK, who should be our best. In fact the king is coming over here in two weeks, he\u2019s a nice guy, King Charles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut should be our best but they weren\u2019t our best. I said: \u2018You have two, old broken-down aircraft carriers, do you think you could send them over?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Ohhh, I\u2019ll have to ask my team.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018You\u2019re the prime minister, you don\u2019t have to.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018No, no, no, I have to ask my team. My team has to meet, we\u2019re meeting next week.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the war already started. Next week the war\u2019s going to be over \u2026 in three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Downing Street sources said Trump had never asked the UK for the vessels and Britain had not offered them. In previous criticism of Starmer two weeks ago, Trump said Starmer had asked to consult his team about sending minesweepers \u2013 not aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n

One senior diplomat said Starmer was right to \u201cessentially ignore\u201d Trump and must now attempt to build ties with Canada, Australia and mainland Europe instead as it was hard to see how the relationship could recover.<\/p>\n

\"TrumpTrump appears to mock Starmer and derides Britain\u2019s \u2018broken-down aircraft carriers\u2019<\/p>\n

Another former diplomat said the king\u2019s visit and potentially Prince William and Kate\u2019s forthcoming US tour may offer a way to improve UK relations with Trump, but that Starmer was taking the right approach in not bowing to the president\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n

One government adviser on foreign affairs said Starmer would always do what was in the UK\u2019s best interests, even if that meant smoothing things over with Trump, but that the \u201cunpredictable, erratic\u201d nature of the president\u2019s insults towards the UK called into question whether trying to have a close personal relationship was the best course of action.<\/p>\n

Labour ministers and MPs have reassured Starmer that they strongly back his approach of staying calm in the face of Trump\u2019s anger and insults \u2013 with some believing his handling of the war and the US president strengthens the case for him to remain leader, regardless of the outcome at the local elections next month.<\/p>\n

Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP and chair of the foreign affairs committee, said she was \u201cglad we have a leader in the UK who works with a team and listens to experts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking decisions about foreign policy, let alone about war, without listening to others leads to problems, like being taken by surprise when the Iranians close the straits of Hormuz,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kim Darroch, the former national security adviser, and a former British ambassador to the US, said Starmer was \u201cright to resist getting directly involved in this \u2018war of choice\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it has unquestionably done significant damage to his personal relationship with Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could conceivably blow over. But it is equally possible that a damaged Trump could lash out, whether against Nato, or selected Europeans, including the UK, perhaps with new or higher tariffs \u2013 a risk which makes rebuilding our links with the EU single market an immediate priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attack on the UK and Starmer has caused problems for Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK and the Conservatives, who were initially supportive of the US bombardment of Iran but have now tempered their backing.<\/p>\n

Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK MP and economic lead, told LBC that the relationship between the prime minister and US president had \u201cclearly taken a massive blow \u2013 probably irreparably so\u201d. But he said he was by no means defending Trump \u201cor the way he conducts himself \u2013 far from it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jenrick said: \u201cI don\u2019t like to see foreign leaders berating the leader of the UK, regardless of which party he or she is. You want our prime minister to be somebody who is respected on the world stage and is treated with respect by our main allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The HMS Prince of Wales. Donald Trump appeared to deride Britain\u2019s two aircraft carriers. Photograph: Max Lye\/Royal Navy\/MoD Crown Copyright\/PA<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s remarks were made at a lunch that was not open to the press but they were released by the White House on a social media channel \u2013 and later deleted. However, the remarks were downloaded and republished by a politics reporter for the US website Business Insider.<\/p>\n

During the lunch, Trump also mocked Emmanuel Macron, saying the French president was \u201cstill recovering from the right to the jaw\u201d and claimed that Macron\u2019s wife, Brigitte, \u201ctreats him extremely badly\u201d.<\/p>\n

Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron are greeted by the Sanae Takaichi during a visit to Tokyo on Wednesday. Photograph: Jeanne Accorsini\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly hit out at the UK over its refusal to authorise the use of military bases for the initial strikes on Iran, as well as its move to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.<\/p>\n

Starmer has not retaliated but said he would stick to his position on the war \u201cwhatever the pressure and the noise\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by parliament\u2019s liaison committee about the \u201cquite rude\u201d comments made by Trump, the prime minister said: \u201cI\u2019m utterly focused on what is in the best interests of our country and I am unapologetic about that. Notwithstanding the pressure that comes from elsewhere, I will remain laser focused on what is in the British national interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd a lot of what is said or done is undoubtedly said and done to put pressure on me, I have no doubt about that. I understand what is going on. But I am not going to be wavering on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI am the British prime minister and my job is to be absolutely focused on what is in the British national interest. That has served me well in recent weeks and that is the principle that I will continue to adhere to as we go forward taking difficult decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer has been warned his relationship with Donald Trump may be beyond repair after the US president…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-373480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}