A former senior Nato commander has defended Sir Keir Starmer after Donald Trump mocked the UK prime minister as “not Winston Churchill” over his refusal to allow initial US strikes on Iran from British bases. General Sir Richard Shirreff said Britain must not get involved in a war “without a clear end point” and accused the US president of launching “another war of choice”.
Trump launched the personal attack on Starmer on Tuesday, telling reporters: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.” The US president said he was unhappy with the UK, even though Starmer later agreed to let the US use the Diego Garcia base for strikes on Iranian missile facilities.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray insisted the prime minister had “acted with a cool head” and “in the national interest”. Shirreff, a former deputy supreme allied commander of Nato, backed Downing Street’s approach, warning against repeating the mistakes of the 2003 Iraq war.
Conservative politicians seized on the row, with shadow chancellor Mel Stride telling Fox News that Starmer’s stance had put the UK-US relationship at risk. Stride also questioned the delay in deploying HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, to the region after a suspected Iranian drone hit RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed the drone caused “minimal damage” and no casualties. Two more drones heading for the base were intercepted on Monday. A fresh alert was sounded on Wednesday morning. Murray said the ship and Wildcat helicopters would be deployed “as soon as possible”.
