{"id":464713,"date":"2026-03-08T19:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/464713\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:21:08","slug":"starmer-speaks-with-trump-after-president-criticises-lack-of-uk-support-for-iran-strikes-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/464713\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer speaks with Trump after president criticises lack of UK support for Iran strikes | Foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer sought to repair fractured relations with Donald Trump<\/a> over the war with Iran on Sunday, as a Labour backlash gathered pace over Tony Blair\u2019s assertion the UK should have supported the US\u2019s initial airstrikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

The prime minister spoke to the US president on Sunday afternoon after a barrage of criticism from Trump, who told his UK ally on Saturday that his help was not needed<\/a>, even as the US continued to use UK bases for strikes against Iran.<\/p>\n

After a breakdown in relations between Trump and Starmer, which led the US president to declare on social media that \u201cWe don\u2019t need people that join wars after we\u2019ve already won\u201d, the two world leaders spoke on Sunday to discuss their nations\u2019 military cooperation.<\/p>\n

A Downing Street spokesperson said the leaders \u201cbegan by discussing the latest situation in the Middle East and the military cooperation between the UK and US through the use of RAF bases in support of the collective self-defence of partners in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

The call came after warnings that Starmer\u2019s initial refusal to allow the US military aircraft to use British airbases had \u201cruined\u201d the special relationship between the two countries. Former head of the army Lord Richard Dannatt told GB News: \u201cThey need us. We need them. And Keir Starmer<\/a> standing on a narrow legal point has ruined that relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

A government minister rejected Dannatt\u2019s assertion, saying it was also critical to support EU allies and Ukraine and adding that the special relationship would endure beyond the current leaders of the US and UK.<\/p>\n

They said: \u201cIf you\u2019re going to put our people in harm\u2019s way, you need a legal mandate, and a well thought-through plan all the way to the end \u2013 it\u2019s quite difficult to see those things [in the US\u2019s position on Iran] right now. People can commentate, snipe and seek personal or political advantage from the sidelines, but I believe we will be on the right side of history on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister was also criticised, in private comments first reported by the Mail on Sunday, by his predecessor Blair \u2013 who told a private Jewish News event on Friday that Starmer \u201cshould have backed America from the very beginning\u201d and let the Trump administration use British airbases.<\/p>\n

Blair, a member of the executive board of Trump\u2019s \u201cboard of peace\u201d \u2013 viewed as the US president\u2019s alternative to the United Nations \u2013 said: \u201cIf they are your ally and they are an indispensable cornerstone for your security \u2026 you had better show up when they want you to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, rejected the former prime minister\u2019s comments, and said that Britain had to \u201clearn the lessons\u201d of mistakes made in Iraq. \u201cI don\u2019t think either of those positions is in the UK national interest, and it is the responsibility for Keir Starmer to act in the UK\u2019s national interest for British citizens,\u201d she told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI think the point is to make sure that, actually, we 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

On Sunday afternoon, two US air force transportation planes landed at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire<\/a>. The planes\u2019 arrival follows that of four US bombers<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The B-1 Lancer bombers are intended for \u201cspecific defensive operations\u201d to stop Iran firing missiles into the Middle East, according to the Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n

While some oppose any role for UK facilities in US operations in Iran, Labour MPs rallied around Starmer on Sunday over Blair\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said Starmer had taken the right approach, which was backed by Labour MPs and the public. A YouGov poll of 6,285 adults in Britain published this week<\/a> found that Britons oppose the initial US-Israel attacks on Iran by 49% to 28%, while nearly half (46%) believe the UK military position should be purely defensive.<\/p>\n

A Labour MP while Blair was prime minister, Thornberry compared Starmer\u2019s position with that of Robin Cook, who resigned from government over Blair\u2019s stance on the war<\/a>. \u201cI would say that Keir is much more Robin Cook than he is Tony Blair, and I\u2019m really pleased about that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Calvin Bailey, a former wing commander who served in Iraq and is now the Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, said Blair should have read the Chilcott inquiry, which examined the mistakes made before the invasion of Iraq. \u201cI have one thing to say to Tony Blair,\u201d said Bailey. \u201cDear Tony, read Chilcott, love Calvin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sentiments were echoed by backbencher Karl Turner. \u201cI suspect that Tony Blair is doing the bidding of Trump in a similar way to Farage,\u201d he said. \u201cIs anybody going to listen to Tony Blair on the progressive side of politics? The answer is absolutely, categorically, no. Tony was an incredible leader of the Labour party [who] got us three election victories, but his reputation on Iraq is terrible, frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the former prime minister said they were made at a private event and were not intended to be made public.<\/p>\n

Starmer continued to face criticism from the Conservatives. The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, called it a \u201cdereliction of duty\u201d not to move warships to Cyprus or the Middle East sooner and accused Starmer of showing \u201cno foresight whatsoever\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch \u2013 who has been fiercely criticised by Labour MPs for her pugilistic stance during a period of military conflict \u2013 said in a social media post that Starmer lacked the \u201cbackbone\u201d for the current moment, while his party were \u201cpolitical pygmies playing student union politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iain Duncan Smith, who was leader of the Conservative party during the invasion of Iraq, defended Badenoch. He said she had a \u201clicence to be aggressive\u201d about what he called a lack of preparation in the Middle East, and failing to earlier deploy the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon, which is in Portsmouth, where it is expected to remain until at least next week. \u201cI think Blair was right, and I suspect Starmer knows it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While HMS Dragon may only arrive to help defend Cyprus two weeks after its deployment was announced, the BBC reported that Britain was preparing HMS Prince of Wales<\/a> \u2013 one of the country\u2019s two aircraft carriers \u2013 to be sent to the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer sought to repair fractured relations with Donald Trump over the war with Iran on Sunday, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-464713","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\/464713","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=464713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}