The former prime minister told a private Jewish News event on Friday that Sir Keir should have let the Trump administration use British airbases to strike Iran<\/a>. <\/p>\n He reportedly added: \u201cIf they are your ally and they are an indispensable cornerstone for your security … you had better show up\u201d. <\/p>\n Sir Tony\u2019s comments were made in private on the understanding that he would not be quoted, but they have since appeared in the Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Times. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Former prime minister Tony Blair recently took a role on Donald Trump\u2019s Board of Peace (Getty)<\/p>\n Asked about the former Labour prime minister\u2019s comments<\/a> on Sky News on Sunday morning, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper<\/a> said: \u201cI just disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cWe learn the lessons from some of the things that went wrong in Iraq, and I think that is exactly what Keir Starmer has done.\u201d<\/p>\n The intervention came as Mr Trump again criticised Sir Keir over the UK\u2019s approach to the Middle East <\/a>conflict, saying that the US does not need anyone to \u201cjoin wars after we\u2019ve already won\u201d. <\/p>\n Mr Trump was referring to reports that the UK is preparing an aircraft carrier for deployment to the Middle East<\/a>.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n US president Donald Trump has criticised Sir Keir Starmer over his slow support for Trump\u2019s war on Iran (Getty)<\/p>\n The US president posted on his Truth Social platform: \u201cThe United Kingdom, our once great Ally, maybe the greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s OK, prime minister Starmer, we don\u2019t need them any longer \u2014 But we will remember. We don\u2019t need people that join wars after we\u2019ve already won!\u201d<\/p>\n Sir Keir has defended his decision not to allow US forces to use British bases to support initial strikes on Iran, saying he needed to be satisfied that any military action was legal and well planned.<\/p>\n However Sir Tony told the Jewish News event: \u201cI am not saying anything that I haven\u2019t already said to the government … I think we should have backed America from the very beginning. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Trump and Blair during a summit of Middle Eastern and European leaders last year (Getty)<\/p>\n \u201cWe have got to be very clear about this as a country. We\u2019re depending on the American alliance for our country. They are not just an ally, they are an indispensable ally, right?\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cThe American relationship matters. It matters particularly today. It\u2019s not a question of whether it\u2019s this president or that president. If they are your ally and they are an indispensable cornerstone for your security…you had better show up.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Keir Starmer initially hesitated when asked by Trump if US forces could use UK airbases, leading to harsh words from the president (Getty)<\/p>\n The former prime minister, who brought the UK into the Iraq war in 2003 on the false belief that Saddam Hussein\u2019s regime had weapons of mass destruction, added: \u201cOn foreign policy, I think people would just prefer you to be strong and out there and clear, even if they don\u2019t agree with you.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, the Trump administration named Sir Tony as a member of the founding executive board of the Board of Peace<\/a>. The board will oversee governance, reconstruction, investment and large-scale funding for Mr Trump\u2019s Gaza plan following the ceasefire<\/a>, the White House said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-464333","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\/464333","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=464333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2240457084.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Keir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264296952.jpeg\")
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