Minister defends UK approach after Trump rebukes Starmer on Iran

The UK will take decisions based on “legality and British interests”, a minister has insisted after Donald Trump launched another broadside against Sir Keir Starmer over the Middle East war.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Darren Jones said that the US and Israel’s initial strikes in Iran did not “meet the test the Prime Minister has set out” as he faced questions about the extent of British support for America’s course of action.

It comes after Mr Trump said Sir Keir had “not been helpful” and branded the transatlantic rift “very sad” in an interview with the Sun on Monday evening.

“This was the most solid relationship of all. And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in Europe,” he said.

“It’s not going to matter, but (Sir Keir) should have helped… he should have.

“I mean, France has been great. They’ve all been great. The UK has been much different from others.”

Asked during the interview about accusations that Sir Keir was pandering to Muslim voters for political reasons, the president said that “it could be”.

It is the second rebuke issued by the president in a British newspaper after he told the Telegraph he was “very disappointed” in the Prime Minister’s decision not to allow US jets to deploy from UK bases to undertake the initial strikes over the weekend.

Sir Keir on Monday said his Government “does not believe in regime change from the skies”, in an apparent criticism of the US President’s bombing campaign in the Middle East.

Speaking to broadcasters on Tuesday morning, Mr Jones defended the Britain’s position and said decisions must be taken on a lawful basis.

Asked whether he accepted the US was frustrated, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister told Sky News: “Well I’ve seen the president’s words but that doesn’t really negate the fact that we make decisions, as I say, on the basis of legality and British interest.

“We were content to offer bases at Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford, because evidently, the operations the Americans will run from those airfields will reduce the risk to British citizens and British assets in the region and that’s why we agreed to the request to use those bases on that basis alone.

“But the Prime Minister is very clear that we were not involved in that first strike and we’re not kind of going to war with Iran or getting involved in a wider set of activities.”

Asked whether the UK’s assessment was that there was not a legal basis for the initial military action over the weekend, Mr Jones said: “We were not involved in the first wave because it didn’t meet the test the Prime Minister’s set out.”

UK bases including the joint UK-US Diego Garcia site in the Chagos Islands and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire are now in play in the conflict, but only so the US can strike defensively to protect countries being targeted by Tehran.

The conflict spiralled throughout Monday, with a series of US airstrikes on Iran, while Israel targeted the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, allies of the Iranian regime.

Tehran, meanwhile, launched strikes against Israel, and the oil and natural gas production facilities of Gulf states allied to the US.

The Israel Defence Forces said on X on Tuesday that they were “conducting simultaneous targeted strikes against military targets in Tehran and Beirut”.

Mr Trump also suggested the war would escalate further, telling CNN that a “big” wave of airstrikes on Iran is yet to come.

He also said that America planned for the conflict to last for some four or five weeks, and has signalled that the US wants to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, its navy and any hope of it obtaining nuclear weapons.

Mr Trump has, however, provided scant detail about what the US’s exit plan from the war might be.

In a post on Truth Social early on Tuesday, Mr Trump suggested the US had a “virtually unlimited” supply of “medium and upper medium grade” munitions which could support the conflict “forever”.

He said: “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better – as was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons.

“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!)”

In the same post, Mr Trump said his predecessor Joe Biden had given away much of the nation’s “super high end” munitions to Ukraine, adding: “Fortunately, I rebuilt the military in my first term, and continue to do so. The United States is stocked, and ready to win, big!!!”

Britons continue to remain stranded throughout the Middle East, with more than 100,000 having registered their presence with the Foreign Office amid evacuation planning.

Large areas of airspace over the region remain closed because of the fighting, and tourism safe spots like Dubai have come under fire in missile attacks.

Some flights have, however, begun to bring people home to the UK.

On Monday afternoon, an Etihad Airways flight carrying stranded British nationals arrived at Heathrow airport, according to flight tracking company Flightradar24.