𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Sir Keir Starmer was put on the spot over Donald Trump’s criticism of him at a press conference on Iran this afternoon. The Prime Minister was asked about the US President’s accusation that he has damaged the special relationship between Britain and America, as well as his jibe that Sir Keir is “no Winston Churchill”.

Sir Keir replied: “Look, the special relationship is in operation right now. We’re working with the Americans in the deployment from our bases.

“We are working together in the region, the US and the British, working together to protect both the US and the British in joint bases where we’re jointly located, and we’re sharing intelligence on 24/7 basis in the usual way.

“That is the special relationship. That is a special relationship in operation, and clearly, it’s for the president to take decisions that he considers in the national interest the right decisions for the US.

“I understand that, I respect that, but equally, it’s for me as the British Prime Minister to take decisions that I consider to be in the best interest of the United Kingdom.

“There’s nothing controversial about that. The special relationship is operating right here at an important point.”

Sir Keir revealed he last spoke to the MAGA chief on Saturday evening when asked if he had been in touch since his barrage of criticism in recent days.

Sir Keir also denied accusations of “indecision, prevarication and a lack of preparedness”.

He said Britain “started pre-deploying to the region in January and February, particularly to Cyprus and Qatar”.

This included fighter jets, air defence missiles, and anti-drone systems and was done over around eight weeks in conjunction with the US and other allies, he said.

Sir Keir added: “So there’s been a lot of pre-planning gone into this, a lot of pre-deployment that’s gone into this.

“And I’m satisfied that we can keep our people safe and we’re working very hard to make sure that wherever people have registered their presence, we can help them with the information that they need and the support they need, and get them back to the United Kingdom as quickly and as safely as possible.”