LONDON — Opposition politicians accused U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday of weakening Britain’s “special relationship” with the United States by differing from U.S. President Donald Trump over Iran and drawing his ire.
Trump on Tuesday called Britain “uncooperative” and slammed Starmer as “not Winston Churchill” after Starmer initially rebuffed a U.S. request to use U.K. bases for attacks on Iran. The prime minister later said American planes could use bases in England and on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to strike Iranian missile systems that are targeting British allies in the Middle East.
Trump remains annoyed, and Starmer is bracing to see whether the president’s anger has an impact on trans-Atlantic ties and trade.
Churchill set the tone for the post-World War II trans-Atlantic bond by declaring during a 1946 speech at Westminster College in Missouri that there was “a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States.”
That relationship has been sustained over the decades by a common language, shared interests, military cooperation and cultural affection. Sometimes that has been bolstered by close personal bonds, such as the friendship between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, or between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
There have also been periods of strain. In 1956, Israel, Britain and France attempted to seize control of the Suez Canal after its nationalization by Egypt. Their forces eventually withdrew after U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration refused to back the effort and threatened sanctions. It was a stark reminder of Britain’s waning power and American ascendancy on the world stage.
A decade later, relations hit a new low when British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resisted pressure from U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson to join the Vietnam War.
Blair was seeking to avoid a similar rift when he sent British troops to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 based on what turned out to be faulty intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruct