James Murray says PM has approached Middle East crisis with a ‘cool head’ amid repeated criticism of UK’s position from US president
Hello and welcome to the UK politics live blog.
A government minister has dismissed Donald Trump’s claim that Keir Starmer is no “Winston Churchill”, arguing that the prime minister had approached the Middle East situation with a “cool head, a real clarity of purpose” and “a determination to do the right thing for the British people”.
In his latest extraordinary salvo, the US president said he was not happy with the UK even though the prime minister eventually agreed the US could use Diego Garcia for strikes on Iranian missile facilities.
It was the third time in 24 hours that Trump had criticised Starmer for the UK’s refusal to aid the initial strikes, underlining his frustration at western allies for not unequivocally backing the action.















