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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Ben Quinn Political correspondent

Ex-Nato commander defends Starmer after Trump’s ‘no Winston Churchill’ jibe

An RAF Typhoon aircraft
An RAF Typhoon aircraft being prepared for operations across the Middle East. Photograph: AS1 Joshua Whiting/MOD Crown Copyright 2026/PA

Britain cannot become embroiled in a war “without a clear end point”, a former senior Nato commander has said, as he defended Keir Starmer after Donald Trump’s jibes that he was “not Winston Churchill”.

Trump was “another American president who had launched a war of choice,” said Gen Sir Richard Shirreff, as a minister insisted that the UK prime minister had acted “with a cool head” by not allowing British bases to be used for initial strikes.

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