Senior British military, diplomatic and political figures have joined forces to denounce Donald Trump over his comment that Keir Starmer is “no Winston Churchill.’
They said the prime minister was right to keep his distance from the US attack on Iran and they hit back hard at the president, saying his insults should be ignored.
Asked whether Mr Trump was right to have expected the UK to be “at its side at times like these,” General Sir Richard Shirreff, a senior former British Army officer and ex Deputy Supreme Commander of Nato said: “Britain has to focus on its own interests.
“We have to put this in the context of an America that has made it clear it is not going to underwrite European security as part of Nato and has threatened to attack a Nato ally, Denmark, (over Greenland).”
Sir Richard told the BBC the UK should not get involved in any conflict where there was no stated aim – and Mr Trump had ‘no strategy’ in Iran.
He added: “Yet again we have an American president who has launched a war of choice with no clear understanding of how this thing is going to end. We have been here back in 2003 with Iraq and we do not want to be going back again in another situation like that.”
Britain’s former ambassador to the US Sir Peter Westmacott dismissed Mr Trump’s unflattering comparison of Sir Keir to Churchill.
He said: “Mr Trump is quite rude about quite a lot of friendly prime ministers. We cannot organise our affairs and policies on the basis of ensuring you don’t have rude words with Donald Trump. He has been pretty offensive to the UK on a number of issues.”
Sir Richard and Sir Peter’s responses were echoed by Dame Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the influential Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
She said: “Trump blows hot and cold and insults all sorts of people and then carries on working with them. We have to stand up for what we believe and what is right. Our view is that the attack on Iran has no plan, it is not in British interests to support it and is contrary to international law.”
But former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Jeremy Hunt said the prime minister was guilty of a “big misjudgment.”
Sir Jeremy said that bearing in mind Britain and Europe’s continuing military dependence on the US to defend it, it was a “mistake” by Sir Keir not to allow the US to use UK bases in its initial wave of attacks on Iran.
