Keir Starmer ‘completely humiliated’ Britain with failings in Middle East | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Sir Keir Starmer has “utterly humiliated” the UK on the worldwide stage by failing to behave over the battle raging within 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 recent blistering assault on Sir Keir, accusing him of making an attempt to “join wars after we’ve already won”.

The pair had a telephone name on Sunday for the primary time because the US president’s public criticism in a bid to restore fraught relations No 10 mentioned they mentioned their army co-operation by means of the US use of RAF bases “in support of the collective self-defence of partners”. But Reform UK’s deputy chief Richard Tice MP mentioned: “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 additionally slammed the Labour chief for making “big mistakes” within the warfare between Iran and the US.

He warned that Sir Keir’s “vacillation and incompetence” have precipitated “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 sufficient army property within the Middle East area after RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a drone.

Air defence destroyer HMS Dragon will probably be despatched to the jap Mediterranean to assist defend the Mediterranean Island, however the Type 45 warship shouldn’t be anticipated to sail till this week.

France and Greece have already deployed army property to defend the island.

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

Speaking on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Mr Philp mentioned: “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 now we have to “make a choice” about deploying ships to the High North or to the Middle East after the earlier Conservative authorities decreased the inventory of army property, Mr Philp mentioned the ships are in Portsmouth.

Mr Philp admitted that defence expenditure wanted to extend, and mentioned the Conservatives would instantly reinstate the two-child profit cap and spend the cash saved on armed forces.

It has been reported that Sir Keir recommended permitting the US to make use of the British bases to hold out defensive strikes in opposition to Iranian targets at a gathering, however was met with opposition from Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper and Shabana Mahmood.

The refusal to permit preliminary US strikes from British bases prompted anger from Mr Trump, who mentioned the Prime Minister was no “Winston Churchill” in a sequence of broadsides final week.

Mr Trump’s newest assault over the weekend got here on his Truth Social media platform, the place he mentioned the UK was “giving serious thought” to sending two plane carriers to the Middle East, earlier than saying the US doesn’t “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 additionally hit again at a rebuke from Sir Tony Blair, saying it was vital to “learn the lessons” from the Iraq warfare after the previous Labour prime minister mentioned the UK ought to have backed the US over Iran from day one.

Ms Cooper informed 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 mentioned the UK must “take decisions ourselves” and that the Prime Minister is “right to stand up for Britain and Britain’s interests”.

Sir Tony informed a non-public occasion that the UK “should have backed America from the beginning”, however the Foreign Secretary rejected the concept that the UK ought to “unquestioningly agree with the US”.

She mentioned: “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 go to a group centre in London on Monday, the place he’ll meet with folks to debate the influence of the battle within the Middle East on communities in Britain.

Speaking forward of the go to, he mentioned: “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 exterior the Iranian embassy in central London on Sunday to indicate their assist for the US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Around 200 demonstrators stood behind boundaries throughout the street from the embassy subsequent to Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon, shouting “shame on you, shame on you”.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats chief Ed Davey referred to as for the PM to cancel the King’s US state go to, given Trump’s “illegal war”.The King is because of go to the US subsequent month.

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

A 3rd Government constitution flight to convey Britons residence from the area was set to go away Muscat, Oman, on Sunday.

There are plans to constitution a industrial flight from Dubai early this week.