The U.S. will only be allowed to use selected British bases for defensive raids on Tehran’s missile stores and launchers after Iran launches retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, Starmer said.
The British PM addressed a packed House of Commons on Monday afternoon after being publicly rebuked by the U.S. president for not allowing the U.S. to use British bases to target Iran during its initial wave of attacks.
Trump told the Telegraph newspaper that he was “very disappointed” that Starmer had hindered the use of the joint Diego Garcia base in the Chagos Islands, and said the PM “took far too long” to change his mind.
“That’s probably never happened between our countries before,” he said in the interview. “It sounds like he was worried about the legality.”
Starmer kicked off his statement to MPs on Monday, acknowledging his disagreement with the U.S. president.
“It is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That’s what I’ve done and I stand by it,” he said.