UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggested he won’t be bullied by Donald Trump in a further demonstration of how the US president’s war on Iran has frayed the so-called special relationship between their two countries.
The British prime minister, talking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby in Finland on Thursday, doubled down on his stance and said he is “not going to back down”.
“There’s undoubtedly been some hard decisions over the last few weeks. I have been clear I’m not going to join the war. And, there’s a clear difference, therefore, of opinion between me and President Trump,” Starmer told the Electoral Dysfunction podcast.
“My own view is that a lot of what is said and done has been to put pressure on me to change my mind, but I’m not going to do so, because I’m the British prime minister and I have to act in the British national interest, and I will always act in the British national interest.”
“When it came to the Iran war, I’ve said we’re not going to get dragged in because my judgement is that’s not in the interests of our country.”
Starmer has drawn flak from Trump for refusing to allow the US military access to British bases for the US-Israeli initial strike on Iran on 28 February that sparked the war. The UK eventually allowed them access for so-called “defensive” action as Iran fired missiles and drones at US bases and Israeli targets in Palestinian occupied territories in retaliation.
Trump has repeatedly tried to strong-arm Starmer to change tack on issues including the extraction of oil in the North Sea and the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the site of a joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia. The two leaders have also clashed in recent months over Greenland and tariffs.
At the end of the interview, the British prime minister was asked what advice he would give to himself in 2024 as he began his premiership. “I’m not going to be pushed around by other people,” he said. “I’m not going to be persuaded to do things that I don’t think are right for our country.”
As Starmer was conducting his interview on Thursday, Trump was speaking at a Cabinet meeting at the White House, where he again criticized the British premier. Trump said he was “disappointed” in Starmer because he “did something that was shocking: he didn’t want to help us.” He also dismissed UK aircraft carriers as “toys” compared to the US fleet.
⚡️Donald Trump says UK aircraft carriers are “toys” compared to US ones
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2026
pic.twitter.com/QkH7R59c9B
Source: Sky News (edited by Al-Manar)