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Starmer’s position has eroded the so-called special relationship between the two nations, with Trump telling the Telegraph on Monday that he was “disappointed in Keir.”

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Later on Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, without naming the UK, that “capable partners are good partners, unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force.” 

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Trump’s Iran War Widens, Forcing Reluctant Allies to Choose

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The repeated disagreements over Greenland, the Chagos Islands and tariffs have been resolved in a phone call between the two leaders. Yet it was a case of forgiven but not forgotten, prompting Starmer to deliver a pivotal speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he moved away from his long-held stance of refusing to choose between Washington and Brussels. Instead he urged Europe to deepen its interdependence and end its over-reliance on American military support. 

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The subtleties of that foreign policy shift have now become more explicit. 

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“Britain has an America problem: our most intimate ally has become profoundly unpredictable and erratic,” said Judah.

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In the latest disagreement, Starmer declined a US request to use British bases at Fairford in the English county of Gloucestershire, and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for offensive strikes against Iran over concerns about the legality of the operations. 

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Despite Trump’s criticism, “it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest,” Starmer told the Commons.  “That is what I’ve done, and I stand by it.”

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The prime minister said he approved a separate American request late Sunday to use the bases to conduct operations for what he described as “specific and limited” defensive purposes by targeting Iranian missile facilities. 

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Starmer said the change in his position came because Iran had launched “indiscriminate” attacks on Britain’s Gulf allies as well as putting thousands of Britons in the region at risk. The UK government published legal advice justifying the use of the bases for defensive operations.

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“It is simply not possible to shoot down every Iranian missile or drone after they’ve been launched: The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source,” Starmer said. “The use of British bases is limited to the agreed defensive purposes, we are not joining the US and Israeli offensive strikes.”

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Starmer’s reluctance to back Trump’s action is as much a political calculation as a legal one. His ruling Labour Party still bears deep scars from former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s controversial decision to support the invasion of Iraq more than two decades ago. His party, and many British voters, are wary of another Middle East war and Starmer has spent much of the year to date trying to suppress leadership challenges from within his party.

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“We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons,” Starmer said Monday.

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(Updates with context on other world leaders in fourth paragraph.)

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