RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Starmer’s no buddy of the navy. No surprise veterans are flocking to Reform

Better late than never, Donald Trump has recanted his offensive remarks about the contribution of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The President posted on Truth Social: ‘The great and very brave soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America! In Afghanistan 457 died, many were badly injured and they were among the greatest of all warriors. It’s a bond too strong to be broken.

‘The UK military, with tremendous heart and soul, is second to none (except for the USA!). We love you all and always will!’

Keir Starmer has tried to take credit for Trump’s climbdown following a phone call with the President at the weekend. My guess is that Trump was more influenced by reports that King Charles was deeply disturbed by his apparent slurs against our Armed Forces than anything the Prime Minister had to say.

The President, who reveres the Royal Family, will have wanted to avoid any potential embarrassment in advance of the King’s State visit to the US later this year. He will also have noted that his friend Nigel Farage, Britain’s most fervently Trumpist politician, joined in the condemnation. 

To be charitable, which isn’t a word usually associated with this column, I’m not sure Trump meant to rubbish the reputation and courage of our military.

Yes, as a White House source admitted, he has a tendency to engage mouth before brain. But when he launched into his tirade about European forces staying well clear of the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan, he probably didn’t have the UK in mind.

Trump is half-British, a committed Anglophile and was a passionate supporter of Brexit. I get the impression that he doesn’t consider the UK to be part of ‘Europe’. It’s the EU nations he holds in contempt.

We’ll never know, because Trump always refuses to apologise. But his, er, clarification on Truth Social is as close to an apology as makes no difference.

The clincher will have been the outraged reaction of senior American military figures such as General Stanley McChrystal, who commanded the Nato coalition in Afghanistan and retired General Barry McCaffrey, who served four tours in Vietnam and Iraq.

I know from personal experience how much the American military admire their British counterparts. During my Christmas holiday in the States, I paid a visit to the impressive Navy SEAL museum in Fort Pierce, Florida.

I was given a guided tour by the museum’s CEO, decorated former SEAL sniper Rick Kaiser who was awarded a Silver Star for bravery during the Black Hawk Down Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 and served with SEAL teams 2 and 6, the unit which went on to hunt down Osama bin Laden.

Kaiser has the highest praise for his opposite numbers in our Special Boat Service (SBS), the British equivalent of the SEALs, alongside whom he has trained and served. 

He told me that the SBS were right up there with the SEALs in terms of preparation, courage and effectiveness. ‘The only difference is we have more stuff.’

And there’s the rub.

Compared to the US military, our Armed Forces are woefully under-funded and under-equipped. We’re all familiar with reports of ammunition shortages, faulty weapons and soldiers even having to buy their own boots.

Which is why Surkeir claiming credit for Trump’s U-turn and posing as a ‘patriotic’ defender of our Armed Forces sticks in the craw.

All governments, including the Tories, are guilty of failing to properly bankroll our Armed Forces. But Labour uniquely is at best indifferent towards the military, especially our superb Special Forces, and at worst outright hostile. 

Starmer’s promise to increase defence spending to a paltry 3 per cent at some point in the future probably isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Judge him on his actions, not his words. Starmer and Rachel From Complaints chose to shovel billions to Benefits Street rather than ensuring that the military are funded adequately to meet the threats of an increasingly dangerous world. 

The last Budget contained not a single penny increase in defence spending.

But it’s his determination to pursue to the grave those brave veterans who served in Northern Ireland and elsewhere that is most appalling.

Surkeir has pledged to scrap the Conservatives’ Legacy Act, which would have protected ex-servicemen from vexatious prosecutions for alleged ‘war crimes’ during The Troubles and would open the way for six-figure compensation payments for terrorists who claim to have been unlawfully detained. 

This is merely a continuation of the Blairite ‘peace’ doctrine of holding veterans to account while emptying the prisons of terrorists and issuing ‘letters of comfort’ to IRA members ‘on the run’ promising them immunity from prosecution.

There’s not a cigarette paper between Surkeir and his mate ‘Lord’ Hermer, the man he made Attorney General and who is best known for trousering a reported £30,000 for representing Gerry Adams in a lawsuit brought by three victims of an IRA bombing campaign.

Hermer says he can’t remember how much he was paid in the Adams case, as if a 30 grand payday is something you’d easily forget. Nor do we know how much he was paid to represent the government of Mauritius.

What we do know is that following Hermer’s advice, Starmer has been determined to surrender sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and by extension the Chinese, while paying them £90 billion for the privilege of taking them off our hands. So no conflict of interest there, then. 

As for supporting our military, the Chagos Islands are home to the strategic UK/US air base on Diego Garcia. No wonder the deal has now been put on hold after Trump grasped the implications for global security.

By happy coincidence, Suella Braverman’s defection to Reform yesterday took place against a backdrop of a Veterans For Reform rally in London. Both Braverman and Farage were scathing in their condemnation of Starmer for putting European yuman rites law ahead of the interests of ex-servicemen.

Farage graphically outlined the way in which Surkeir and Hermer are happy for undocumented foreign men who have entered the country illegally to be given immediate access to food and lodging and a range of other benefits, including free health care, while destitute British veterans are forced to sleep on the streets.

Farage has promised to repeal the ECHR and use the royal prerogative to pardon any Northern Ireland veteran convicted under the Act and extend that protection to soldiers hounded by yuman rites lawyers following the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Coverage of Sue Ellen’s defection on Sky News was preceded by an advert for the charity Royal British Veterans Enterprise to raise money for homeless ex-servicemen.

Starmer’s weasel words paying lip-service to the bravery of our troops ring hollow when set against his shocking neglect of the Armed Forces and his continuing campaign of lawfare against those who served their country with courage and distinction. Surkeir talks with forked tongue.

You could never imagine him being cheered to the rafters by hundreds of ex-military personnel, as Braverman and Farage were yesterday. Not that he’d contemplate taking part in such an event. We won’t be seeing a Veterans For Labour rally any time soon.

Actually, it’s entirely the kind of patriotic jamboree at which Trump excels in the US. So, better late than never, it’s right and proper that he’s withdrawn his earlier remarks and ladled praise on our troops.

Disregard Starmer’s attempt to take credit for Trump’s reverse ferret and concentrate on his duplicitous attitude to our Armed Forces. It’s no wonder veterans are flocking to Reform.