Sir Keir Starmer today hinted at an icy phone call with Donald Trump as he insisted it was up to him to decide what is in Britain’s best interests.
The Prime Minister has faced a barrage of attacks from the US President after he failed to support American and Israeli strikes against Iran.
Mr Trump has sniped that Sir Keir ‘is not Winston Churchill’ and, at the weekend, took another dig at the PM over reports Britain may send aircraft carriers to the region.
‘We don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won!,’ the US President posted on his Truth Social site.
With the so-called ‘Special Relationship’ deep in crisis, Sir Keir and Mr Trump spoke on the phone on Sunday.
But, during a visit to a community centre in London on Monday morning, the PM gave little indication their talks had successfully patched up relations.
‘Decisions about what’s in Britain’s best interests are decisions for the Prime Minister of Britain,’ Sir Keir pointedly said, as he discussed his call with Mr Trump.
It came amid signs the PM’s spat with the US President over Iran could be shoring up his position among Labour MPs, following weeks of speculation over his political future.
Senior Labour backbencher Dame Emily Thornberry said it was ‘right’ for Sir Keir not to involve Britain in the US and Israeli attacks against Iran, adding: ‘Good for him.’
‘It is very, very unusual for a British PM to say no to an American president,’ Dame Emily, the chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, told Sky News.
‘I think the last time it happened was [Harold] Wilson – so it was a long time ago. But it was right.
‘It was right to say we shouldn’t be involved in offensive action against Iran. Because there wasn’t a plan, because it isn’t in Britain’s interests, and because it’s not legal.’
Other Labour backbenchers have suggested the PM is playing an ‘absolute blinder’ in distancing Britain from the US action and welcomed the split with Washington DC.
Opinion polls have shown more British voters oppose the UK joining strikes against Tehran than support it.
Speaking on Monday, Sir Keir defended his response to the Iran crisis following the repeated criticism by Mr Trump.
‘It’s really important to emphasise that the US and the UK are working together every single day, as they always have,’ he said.
‘And obviously, in relation to Iran, the US are now using UK air bases under the agreement that we’ve reached.
‘But more generally than that, intelligence is being shared every day in the region.
‘We have our military personnel and US military personnel co-located in the same places, in the same bases, and both the US and the UK are working together and protecting those bases.
‘So in terms of the relationship, the work that we necessarily have to do together is going on as you would expect.
‘I had a telephone call with President Trump yesterday talking about the conflict in Iran and the region and what we were doing together, and that was important in terms of the ongoing discussion.
‘But the discussion with our US counterpart is happening at all levels, all of the time, every single day. That’s the nature of the relationship.’
The PM went on to insist that ‘decisions about what’s in Britain’s best interests are decisions for the Prime Minister of Britain, and that’s how I’ve approached all of the questions and all the decisions that I’ve had to make’.
Downing Street sources characterised the call between Mr Trump and Sir Keir as ‘constructive’.
But No10 on Monday would not be drawn into revealing further details of the conversation. Sir Keir’s official spokesman said: ‘The PM was asked about this this morning.
‘He talked about how it’s really important to emphasise that the US and the UK are working together every single day.
‘He also emphasised the importance of acting in the national interest for British people.’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir had been ‘too slow’ to respond to the Iran crisis and had been ‘on the back foot’.
She claimed the PM had been distracted by his domestic woes and the Peter Mandelson scandal.
She told Sky News on Monday: ‘This is a difficult situation, we all understand that. But he has been too slow to recognise what was coming down the line.
‘We now know he was warned about these strikes much earlier – he did absolutely nothing.
‘He was too slow to let the US use our air bases, he was too slow to protect our troops in Bahrain, in Cyprus. HMS Dragon, our warship, is still docked in Portsmouth.’
Mrs Badenoch added: ‘This all shows he has been on the back foot because he’s been distracted by his own job issues, the Peter Mandelson stuff, losing his chief of staff. He’s not been focused on what’s been going on in the world.’
