KEIR Starmer has insisted he is “not going to yield” to pressure from Donald Trump, after the US president threatened to change the terms of a trade deal with Britain after the Prime Minister’s refusal to get involved in the Iran war.
Trump suggested the terms of the UK-US trade agreement brokered last year “can always be changed” in an overnight interview with Sky News.
Relations between the British and American leaders have deteriorated after Starmer rejected the prospect of UK involvement in the Middle East conflict.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons, Starmer addressed Trump’s overnight comments.
He told MPs: “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.
“A lot of pressure has been applied to me to take a different course, and that pressure included what happened last night.
“I’m not going to change my mind. I’m not going to yield.
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“It is not in our national interest to join this war, and we will not do so. I know where I stand.”
Elsewhere, Starmer clashed with Kemi Badenoch as the Tory leader demanded the Government spend more on defence, after former Labour defence secretary Lord Robertson issued a scathing attack on his party's stance on the matter.
Targeting the PM’s claim that the UK has increased defence spending by a record rate, Badenoch said: “He’s talking about the biggest sustained increase – talking about an increase is not the same as giving an increase.
“The military and the defence industry want to hear about what he’s going to do, not him prosecuting past governments. He promised that the defence investment plan would be published last autumn.”
Starmer replied: “I’ve set out my position – the defence investment plan is the first line-by-line review of defence budgets for 18 years.
“She talks about talking – if you’re going to support and make your country safe, you have to get the right calls on the big issues. She called for us to jump into the war (in Iran), they could pretend otherwise.
“I remember walking in, standing here for the first time, saying we would not get drawn into the war, we would not join the offensive, and they all shouted ‘shame’.”
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