'INCOMPETENT STARMER IS KILLING SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP'

Prime Minister's slow response to the crisis in Iran a 'dereliction of duty'

- BY STEPH SPYRO Deputy Political Editor

KEIR Starmer is accused of wrecking Britain’s “special relationship” with the US after Donald Trump’s latest blistering attack.

The president accused the Prime Minister of trying to “join wars after we've already won”. He blasted Sir Keir again for his delay in letting US forces use UK bases for Operation Epic Fury in Iran. Opposition MPs called the breakdown in the nations’ historic bond “incompetent”, a “dereliction of duty” and “humiliating”.

Sir Keir and Mr Trump spoke on the phone yesterday for the first time since the US president’s criticism in a bid to repair fraught relations. No.10 said they discussed their military cooperation through the US use of RAF bases “in support of the collective self-defence of partners”.

But Reform MP Robert Jenrick warned that Sir Keir’s “vacillation and incompetence” had caused “immense, potentially lasting damage, to our relationships in the United States and elsewhere”.

He 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.

“Should we have put assets into the Gulf and Mediterranean to protect our base in Cyprus? Yes, 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.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the PM’s response had been “a dereliction of duty”.