Starmer returns Trump’s trade fire

London

Prime Minister Keir Starmer hit back on Wednesday after President Donald Trump’s latest attack over the UK’s decision not to join the US strikes on Iran, this time threatening to review a trade deal agreed last year. In a phone call with ‘Sky News’ on Tuesday, the US President said it was “sad” that the so-called special relationship with Britain has been strained despite him agreeing to a "good" trade deal "which can always be changed”.

This latest threat was raised in the House of Commons, with Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey questioning the feasibility of King Charles III’s upcoming State Visit to the US going ahead against the backdrop of such attacks by Trump. 

“My position on the Iran war has been clear from the start. We're not going to get dragged into this war. It is not our war,” Starmer told Parliament. 

“A lot of pressure has been applied to me to take a different course, and that pressure included what happened last night (Trump’s ‘Sky News’ interview). I'm not going to change my mind. I'm not going to yield. It is not in our national interest to join this war, and we will not do so," he said. 

He went on to stress that the war would not impact the British monarch’s four-day visit to the US, which commences on April 27.