Nigel Farage today distanced himself from his ally Donald Trump after the president lambasted Britain and other Nato allies over their role in the war in Afghanistan.
The Reform leader used an appearance in Davos to say that Trump was ‘unfair’ on the UK and other nations like Denmark whose soldiers gave their lives in the two-decade conflict.
Politicians and military veterans have reacted with outrage after the president told Fox News that Nato troops stayed ‘a little off the front lines’ during the war in Afghanistan.
Some 457 British service personnel were killed in the conflict in Afghanistan, fighting alongside the US, and countless more were severely wounded, a point Mr Farage made.
In a tweet he said: ‘Donald Trump is wrong. For 20 years our armed forces fought bravely alongside America’s in Afghanistan.’
And he liked to a clip of himself speaking at the World Economic Forum in which he said he would object ‘politely’, to what Trump said.
‘When the decision was made to go into Afghanistan we went in with America and a coalition of the willing,’ he said.
‘We stayed by America for the whole 20 years, we proportionately spent the same money as America, we lost the same number of lives as America, pro-rata, and the same applies to Denmark and other countries too, so it is not quite fair.’
Keir Starmer led a chorus of fury against Trump today after the president’s vile slur.
Downing Street hit out at Trump for ‘diminishing the sacrifice and service of our troops’ in a television interview that worsened the deepest transatlantic rift in decades.
His remarks came after a week in which the president clashed with Nato allies, including the UK, over their refusal to agree to his demand that Greenland be brought under US control.
In what was branded a cheap shot at his country’s allies he said he was ‘not sure’ the military alliance would be there for America ‘if we ever needed them’.
‘We’ve never needed them … we have never really asked anything of them,’ he told Fox.
‘They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines’.
No 10 today said that the president was ‘wrong in diminishing the sacrifice and service of our troops’, with the PM’s spokesman saying: ‘Their sacrifice and that of other Nato forces was made in the service of collective security and in response to an attack on our ally.’
And Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused the president of talking ‘flat-out nonsense’, about those who ‘fought and died alongside the US’, adding: ‘Their sacrifice deserves respect not denigration.’
The mother of veteran Ben Parkinson, who is regarded as the most severely injured British soldier to survive in Afghanistan, said she was ‘stunned as to how anyone could say such a thing’ in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s comments.
Diane Dernie said: ‘I can assure you, the Taliban didn’t plant IEDs miles and miles back from the front line.’
