Deputy prime minister David Lammy has risked fuelling the Anglo-US rift over Iran by criticising Donald Trump’s demand for a say in its new leader.
Mr Lammy said the choice of a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was “for the Iranian people to determine” – not the US president.
His comment came after Mr Trump said he believed he should be involved in the decision.
Mr Lammy also delivered a riposte to Mr Trump’s jibe that Sir Keir Starmer was “no Churchill,” pointing out that Winston Churchill had disagreed with America’s president, Franklin Roosevelt, during the Second World War on how to deal with the Soviet Union’s leader, Joseph Stalin.
Asked if Mr Trump should have a say in the choice of Iran’s next leader, Mr Lammy said: “Clearly, regime change I don’t think has been succeeded in the air anywhere in the world.”
Challenged directly on whether the US president should have a say on Khamenei’s replacement, Mr Lammy replied: “If you believe in democracy, and we and the US are democratic countries, we believe it is for the Iranian people to determine who leads their country.”
Put to him that he was signalling the person who should decide Iran’s next ruler was “clearly not Donald Trump”, Mr Lammy did not demur, stating: “I have answered the question.”
Questioned about the division between Sir Keir and Mr Trump, he said that notwithstanding the “special relationship” between the two allies, they did not always agree.
“Are there occasions when a UK prime minister and the US president have a different view about international affairs?
“Yes, that was the case in WW2 between Churchill and Roosevelt on how to handle Stalin, that was the case between (1960s Labour PM Harold) Wilson and LBJ (US President Johnson) on Vietnam and that was the case between Margaret Thatcher and (Ronald) Reagan on Grenada.
“And yes, we have had a different assessment on whether offensive action (against Iran) at this time should go ahead and therefore we have not played a role in that.”
Interviewed by the BBC, Mr Lammy refused to say if Sir Keir had told Mr Trump directly that he believed the war lacked a clear objective, saying: “I know the answer but I cannot share it with you.”
He said the British government believed diplomacy had been “taking its course” in the US dispute with Iran before the American attacks. The UK had “not taken part in the offensive action principally because of the legal basis”.
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