The Prime Minister has faced criticism from Mel Stride, who described the government’s approach to the tensions involving Iran as “flat-footed.”
In an interview with GB News, the Shadow Chancellor stated that Keir Starmer had not acted quickly enough during the crisis and emphasised the importance of maintaining strong relationships with allies, particularly the United States.
These comments come in light of criticism from Donald Trump, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the UK’s handling of the Iran-related conflict.
Trump reportedly objected to what was described as a reversal of UK policy regarding the use of British military bases by US forces during the crisis.
The ongoing debate occurs amidst broader political pressure on Britain’s response to escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The US President said on Tuesday: “That island that you read about the lease, for whatever reason, he made a lease of the island.
Somebody came and took it away from him, and it’s taken three or four days for us to work out where we can land.
“There would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”
Sir Mel told GB News: “I think the takeaway from this is that in a very uncertain and dangerous world, allies matter, and no ally matters more to our country than the United States.
To have ended up in a situation because of the way the Prime Minister has played support to the US around Iran, where Donald Trump is basically really, seriously questioning the relationship he has with us is quite a serious situation.
Sir Mel hit out at Starmer for being “weak” and said “all the chaos surrounding No10″ will make things “more difficult to protect our country’s national interest.
Sir Mel said the deployment of HMS Dragon to Cyprus he said: “We know that a French aircraft carrier will shortly be in the area around Cyprus to carry out some of the functions that HMS Dragon will also be carrying out when it arrives, but of course it’s going to take quite some time to get there.
And I do wonder, actually, one of the things that a lot of people haven’t focused on is what are the Cypriots thinking about this?
“Because one of the reasons why they welcome us having Akrotiri as a base there is it’s part of not just defending our interests, but also defending their interest too. And yet, where are we when things have kicked off?”
He added: “I think they could be forgiven for thinking that they’ve actually been left in a situation where there’s incoming fire, because we’ve got a base there, but there isn’t the requisite ship there that we should have had there earlier to make sure that everything is properly defended.”
