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Sir Keir Starmer has “utterly humiliated” the UK on the global stage by failing to act over the conflict raging in the Middle East, MPs have warned. The Prime Minister was accused of wrecking Britain’s “special relationship” with the US after Donald Trump launched a fresh blistering attack on Sir Keir, accusing him of trying to “join wars after we’ve already won”.

The pair had a phone call on Sunday for the first time since the US president’s public criticism in a bid to repair fraught relations No 10 said they discussed their military co-operation through the US use of RAF bases “in support of the collective self-defence of partners”. But Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice MP said: “Sir Keir Starmer has utterly humiliated the UK in the eyes of our long-standing allies, whether it’s with the United States, Cyprus or the Gulf States.

“Starmer is too afraid of Labour’s Islamist voters to govern properly. Only Reform can be trusted to repair the special relationship and rescue our country’s reputation with the international community.”

Reform MP Robert Jenrick also slammed the Labour leader for making “big mistakes” in the war between Iran and the US.

He warned that Sir Keir’s “vacillation and incompetence” have caused “immense damage, potentially lasting damage, to our relationships in the United States and elsewhere”.

Speaking on Sunday, Mr Jenrick added: “Have big mistakes been made? Yes, absolutely. Should we have used our bases and given those to the United States from the outset? Yes, absolutely, and the vacillation of the Prime Minister has damaged relationships with the United States significantly, with allies elsewhere, such as the Gulf.

“Should we have put assets into the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean to protect our base in Cyprus? Yes, I think it’s one of the worst failures of military planning in recent years that the United States could build up the biggest armada in that region in a generation, and Keir Starmer didn’t put a single ship into the region. We had to rely on the French to defend our base in Cyprus. That is astonishing.”

Allies have criticised the Government for failing to have enough military assets in the Middle East region after RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a drone.

Air defence destroyer HMS Dragon will be sent to the eastern Mediterranean to help protect the Mediterranean Island, but the Type 45 warship is not expected to sail until this week.

France and Greece have already deployed military assets to defend the island.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called the Government’s failure to move warships to Cyprus or the Middle East sooner a “dereliction of duty”.

Speaking on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Mr Philp said: “The problem is, those ships (HMS Dragon and HMS Prince of Wales) as we speak, are nowhere near Cyprus. They’re nowhere near the Gulf.

“They’re tied up at the docks in Portsmouth because Keir Starmer and the Labour Government showed no foresight whatsoever, even though they knew three or four weeks ago that America planned this action against Iran, they did not move those ships into the region.

“That is a dereliction of duty, frankly.”

Asked if we have to “make a choice” about deploying ships to the High North or to the Middle East after the previous Conservative government reduced the stock of military assets, Mr Philp said the ships are in Portsmouth.

Mr Philp admitted that defence expenditure needed to increase, and said the Conservatives would immediately reinstate the two-child benefit cap and spend the money saved on armed forces.

It has been reported that Sir Keir suggested allowing the US to use the British bases to carry out defensive strikes against Iranian targets at a meeting, but was met with opposition from Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood.

The refusal to allow initial US strikes from British bases prompted anger from Mr Trump, who said the Prime Minister was no “Winston Churchill” in a series of broadsides last week.

Mr Trump’s latest attack over the weekend came on his Truth Social media platform, where he said the UK was “giving serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East, before saying the US does not “need them”.

“The United Kingdom, our once great ally, maybe the greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “That’s okay, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – but we will remember.

“We don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won!”

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has said the UK Government’s job is not to be “outsourcing our foreign policy”.

She also hit back at a rebuke from Sir Tony Blair, saying it was important to “learn the lessons” from the Iraq war after the former Labour prime minister said the UK should have backed the US over Iran from day one.

Ms Cooper told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “It’s for the US president to decide what he thinks is in the US national interest, and that’s for him to do.

“But it is our job as the UK Government to decide what’s in the UK national interest, and that doesn’t mean simply agreeing with other countries or outsourcing our foreign policy to other countries.”

She said the UK needs to “take decisions ourselves” and that the Prime Minister is “right to stand up for Britain and Britain’s interests”.

Sir Tony told a private event that the UK “should have backed America from the beginning”, but the Foreign Secretary rejected the idea that the UK should “unquestioningly agree with the US”.

She said: “There are people who think we should just unquestioningly do so, and that I just think is not in the UK’s national interest.

“Having been a minister in the last Labour government, I also think it is important to learn lessons from what went wrong in Iraq.”

The Prime Minister will visit a community centre in London on Monday, where he will meet with people to discuss the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on communities in Britain.

Speaking ahead of the visit, he said: “I know that people are worried sick for friends and family as the conflict in the Middle East continues.

“That’s why we’re working around the clock to keep British citizens safe. Staff are on the ground to support those in need, Government-provided flights are helping people get home, and our tireless

“Armed forces are flying across the region to defend our allies and our interests.

“But people are also rightly worrying what this means for life at home – their bills, their jobs, their communities.

“I want to address those concerns head-on. I will always be guided by what is best for the British public. And no matter the headwinds, supporting working people and their families with the cost of living is always top of my mind.

“That is true from the day I took office, to the decisions I’ve made over the last week. And the steps we’ve taken to stabilise our economy will make our country stronger in the face of global shocks so that they weigh less heavily on people’s lives.”

It comes as protesters gathered outside the Iranian embassy in central London on Sunday to show their support for the US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Around 200 demonstrators stood behind barriers across the road from the embassy next to Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon, shouting “shame on you, shame on you”.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey called for the PM to cancel the King’s US state visit, given Trump’s “illegal war”.The King is due to visit the US next month.

It comes as nearly 27,000 British nationals have returned from Gulf states.

A third Government charter flight to bring Britons home from the region was set to leave Muscat, Oman, on Sunday.

There are plans to charter a commercial flight from Dubai early this week.