Donald Trump last night launched another withering attack on Keir Starmer, dismissing him as ‘no Churchill’.
In a major blow to the Special Relationship, the US President said he was ‘not happy with the UK’ and branded it ‘very, very uncooperative’ over his assault on Iran.
Sir Keir was also under fire closer to home as Britain yesterday scrambled to protect its RAF base on Cyprus, which was hit by a suicide drone thought to have been fired by Tehran’s proxies late on Sunday night.
The UK was left embarrassed as military minnow Greece will have warships in position to protect RAF Akrotiri days before the Royal Navy will be anywhere near the danger zone.
And Sir Keir announced that Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon, along with helicopters with counter-drone capabilities, would head to the Mediterranean only after Emmanuel Macron ordered a French frigate to the region.
It came as the French president last night said the US and Israel acted ‘outside international law’ with their strikes against Iran.
Questions have been asked as to why a British vessel was not deployed sooner, given America had publicly been moving its arsenal into position for some time.
Former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, said ‘Nelson will be spinning in his grave’ over Britain’s response and the state of the senior service, which has scarcely any active ships or submarines to send to a crisis anywhere in the world.
He added: ‘When I was First Sea Lord, I tended to send warships towards the sound of the guns.
‘In January, I pointed out that if the situation with Iran deteriorated the region would be in great difficulty. The Government did not listen. We should have acted sooner.’
Former Royal Navy Falklands conflict commander Rear Admiral Chris Parry decried Labour’s ‘strategically illiterate’ approach to the crisis.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘The Government has been shamed into this token, paltry effort by the actions of other countries such as France and Greece.
‘As a proud maritime country, our politicians should not have to be dragged kicking and screaming into a conflict in which British lives and interests were clearly going to be at stake.’
HMS Dragon will start its journey from Portsmouth and is not expected to arrive for a week.
While in dock, it was joined by other stricken ships from Britain’s cash-strapped fleet undergoing maintenance or repairs.
Other naval ships sit in either Devonport dock, in Plymouth, or at Clyde, rather than being out at sea.
Shadow Armed Forces minister Mark Francois said: ‘Britannia once ‘ruled the waves’ rather than being tied up in port.
‘Why, given the US build-up has already been under way for weeks, are we only just sending one now? Why didn’t we dispatch one to the Med a fortnight ago?
‘It’s like Nelson turning up to Trafalgar a week late.’
Asked if the prospect of France sending a warship to defend a British base was embarrassing, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘We’ve set out multiple times the assets and the capabilities that we’ve deployed defensively to the region and that includes radar systems, air defence and F-35 jets. That is a significant level of defensive capability to our bases in Cyprus.’
Akrotiri was targeted on Sunday night and again on Monday, after Sir Keir eventually gave America the green light to use joint US/UK bases, more than 24 hours after Washington began its operation by taking out Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mr Trump said last night: ‘I’m not happy with the UK. This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.
‘Spain has been very, very uncooperative and so has the UK. The second one is shocking but this is not the age of Churchill.
‘The UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island [Chagos]. That they gave away and took a 100-year lease… what’s that all about?’
His remarks will put fresh pressure on Sir Keir to abandon his controversial deal to hand the Chagos Islands, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, to China ally Mauritius, then lease back the crucial military base on Diego Garcia for £35billion.
But Downing Street said: ‘The work on Diego Garcia and the deal continues – we have been very clear about its value as a military asset to both the UK and the US, and that position hasn’t changed.’
No 10 also claimed the US and UK remained ‘staunch allies’.
Chief Secretary to the PM Darren Jones admitted: ‘I think the President’s frustration, from the way he’s articulated it, has been that we were not involved in the initial American and Israeli strikes in Iran.’
But he added: ‘As the Prime Minister said… we will only engage British Armed Forces when it’s in British interests, with a clear plan and on a legal basis.’
