{"id":457929,"date":"2026-03-04T23:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457929\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T23:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:51:08","slug":"hes-no-winston-churchill-why-starmer-can-shrug-off-trumps-insults-over-iran-keir-starmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/457929\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He\u2019s no Winston Churchill\u2019: why Starmer can shrug off Trump\u2019s insults over Iran | Keir Starmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was perhaps the most attention-grabbing moment<\/a> of prime minister\u2019s questions. Responding to yet another Conservative salvo about his approach to Iran and how it might affect ties with America, Keir Starmer was direct.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican planes are operating out of British bases \u2013 that is the special relationship in action,\u201d he said. \u201cSharing intelligence every day to keep our people safe \u2013 that is the special relationship in action. Hanging on to President Trump\u2019s latest words is not the special relationship in action.\u201d<\/p>\n

And certainly in the last few days, hanging on to and then endlessly, painfully analysing Trump\u2019s ever-changing opinions has become even more of a national pursuit than it was before.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the US president told<\/a> the Daily Telegraph that Starmer \u201ctook far too long\u201d to allow US forces to use UK airbases. Speaking to the Sun on Tuesday, Trump said the prime minister \u201chas not been helpful\u201d. Later that day he commented witheringly<\/a> about Starmer to reporters: \u201cThis is not Winston Churchill that we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

In previous eras, such criticism from a US president, particularly in so concentrated a volley, would prompt mass soul-searching in Downing Street and the Foreign Office, where the flame of the so-called special relationship with Washington still flickers.<\/p>\n

But for now, as demonstrated at PMQs, Starmer is, if not completely sanguine about Trump\u2019s comments, then certainly confident of his path, and for three closely interlinked reasons.<\/p>\n

The first is the modern-day diplomatic truism that, much as with the old joke about the British weather, if you dislike Trump\u2019s opinion on something then don\u2019t worry, just wait a bit and something very different will come along in its place.<\/p>\n

Starmer was no more than politely pleased and privately baffled by Trump\u2019s previous declarations of affection for him, taking in everything from Starmer\u2019s political judgment to his \u201cbeautiful\u201d accent.<\/p>\n

No US president in history has been as prolific or wayward in his public utterances, and other world leaders have long learned to essentially ignore much of what he says, generally waiting to see if it is backed by any kind of action.<\/p>\n

Secondly, No 10 knows full well that while Kemi Badenoch and her colleagues might lambast the government for not signing up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran<\/a> from the very start, public opinion tends to be more on the side of Starmer.<\/p>\n

YouGov polling on Monday<\/a> showed fairly strong opposition to the overall US operation in Iran, with opinion also slightly against even allowing US aircraft to use British bases to attack the country.<\/p>\n

Finally, there is some quiet frustration inside No 10 at the way Starmer\u2019s decisions over Iran have been portrayed and analysed entirely through the prism of Trump-management.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the prime minister is acting in the British interest, and to protect British people,\u201d one said. \u201cThat is why he has taken the action that he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is perhaps a slight if understandable oversimplification. Downing Street has been happy to take Trump\u2019s praise in the past, along with wider compliments for Starmer as an adept diplomatic performer<\/a>, someone who could, in the words of one minister, act as a bridge<\/a> between the US and Europe.<\/p>\n

Starmer has fully played his part in buttering up his erratic counterpart, arriving at his first White House visit with a letter from King Charles<\/a> proposing an unprecedented second state visit.<\/p>\n

For all that Trump is portrayed as transactional, the UK approach is very clearly done in the hope of acquiring tangible benefits, most notably the success in avoiding some of Trump\u2019s regime of tariffs.<\/p>\n

There are nonetheless some red lines. Downing Street has condemned Trump over the US president\u2019s repeated and inaccurate criticisms of Sadiq Khan and how the London mayor has supposedly allowed unrestricted migration to destroy the city.<\/p>\n

Most obviously, in January Starmer rebuked Trump<\/a> over his comments that British soldiers in Afghanistan avoided the frontline. The PM called these \u201cinsulting and frankly appalling\u201d remarks, and suggested Trump should apologise.<\/p>\n

As a diplomatic stance it is coherent, if not always comfortable and, by the standards of previous eras, often unorthodox. But this is the world in which every other US ally also operates, and as yet none has found a way to keep Trump onside all the time. This is mass endeavour, and a shared burden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was perhaps the most attention-grabbing moment of prime minister\u2019s questions. Responding to yet another Conservative salvo about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-457929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}