Starmer reveals he hasn’t spoken to Trump for days however claims he DOES have a grip on Middle East disaster whereas swiping at US President for ‘chaos’

Keir Starmer swiped at Donald Trump for plunging the Middle East into ‘chaos’ today – and admitted the president has been giving him the silent treatment.

The PM played down a mounting backlash over Britain’s lack of military preparations and the meltdown in the Special Relationship at a Downing Street press conference.

Standing by his decision to stop the US carrying out ‘offensive’ airstrikes on Iran from UK bases, Sir Keir said he was providing ‘calm, level-headed leadership’ and appealed for the nation to ‘come together’. 

He also argued that the UK had been deploying resources such as anti-aircraft missiles to the region since December, despite anger at the apparent inability to protect a crucial Cyprus base from Iranian reprisals. 

The premier said helicopters with capability to shoot down missiles and drones would be arriving in the Mediterranean tomorrow, and more Typhoon jets were being deployed to Qatar. 

‘While the region has been plunged into chaos, my focus is providing calm, level-headed leadership in the national interest,’ Sir Keir said. 

Bracing Brits for looming pain from spiking energy costs, he added: ‘This conflict could continue for some time.’  

There are claims that Mr Trump has taken to referring to Sir Keir as a ‘loser’ in private. He has already publicly dismissed the premier as ‘no Churchill’ after he refused to join the initial strikes on Saturday morning. 

Sir Keir insisted Transatlantic ties were still working despite the spat, but said: ‘It’s for me as the British PM to take the decisions that I consider to be in the best interests of the UK.’ 

Sir Keir’s desperate efforts to get back on the front foot have been thrown into turmoil by news that more European countries are having to deploy forces to protect the crucial RAF Akrotiri base on Cyprus.

Spain is to join France, Italy and the Netherlands in sending its navy, with the UK not having any vessels in the area and Type 45 air defence destroyer HMS Dragon not even due to set off until next week. 

Madrid said the frigate Cristobal Colon would join a growing international armada in the Eastern Mediterranean to ‘offer protection and aerial defence’ and ‘support any evacuation of civilians’ from the island.

RAF Akroitiri was hit by an Iranian drone fired from Lebanon on Sunday, raising major concerns about the standard of local air defences.

Officials said the damage was minor, but last night it was revealed the drone hit a hangar used by the US for U2 spy planes flying high-altitude reconnaissance missions.

After France agreed to send frigates to protect the island Sir Keir finally ordered HMS Dragon to sail to the region on Tuesday.

However, the Spectator reported that the first enquiry from the US about using UK bases for strikes came 11 days before they were launched on Saturday. Critics pointed out that meant the government had plenty of warning of what was coming. 

Asked whether the Special Relationship was ruined, Sir Keir said: ‘Look, the special relationship is in operation right now.

‘We’re working with the Americans in the deployment from our bases. We are working together in the region, the US and the British, working together to protect both the US and the British in joint bases where we’re jointly located, and we’re sharing intelligence on a 24/7 basis in the usual way.

‘That is the special relationship. That is a special relationship in operation and, clearly, it’s for the president to take decisions that he considers in the national interest, the right decisions, for the US.

‘I understand that, I respect that, but equally, it’s for me as the British Prime Minister to take decisions that I consider to be in the best interest of the United Kingdom.

‘There’s nothing controversial about that. The special relationship is operating right here at an important point.’

He insisted he was ‘satisfied that we can keep our people safe’ amid accusations of dithering and a lack of UK preparedness in the conflict.

Britain started ‘pre-deploying’ to the region in January and February, he said, particularly to Qatar and to Cyprus, where RAF Akrotiri was struck by a drone earlier this week in an attack that sparked questions about a lack of defence.

‘There’s been a lot of pre-planning gone into this, a lot of pre-deployment that’s gone into this,’ Sir Keir said.

‘And I’m satisfied that we can keep our people safe and we’re working very hard to make sure that wherever people have registered their presence, we can help them with the information that they need and the support they need, and get them back to the United Kingdom as quickly and as safely as possible.’

But Nigel Farage said Britain has been ‘humiliated’ over the Government’s response to the conflict in the Middle East.

Speaking at the launch of Reform’s Wales manifesto, the party leader said Sir Keir Starmer was ‘incapable of making a decision’, describing him as a ‘follower and not a leader’.

‘We find ourselves humiliated,’ he said. ‘What was for centuries the greatest naval nation on Earth is now unable, for up to a fortnight, to send a Type 45 to Cyprus to defend British sovereign territory.

‘We’ve managed to upset the Cypriots, we’ve managed to upset the Americans, we’ve managed to upset the UAE, Bahrain and all the other Gulf states that are on our side.’

It was claimed today that Sir Keir would not have survived in No10 if he had backed Mr Trump’s Iran strikes.

A senior Labour MP has insisted Sir Keir ‘didn’t have a choice’ about turning down the request following the by-election humiliation by anti-war Greens in Gorton & Denton.

Sir Keir barely fended off a coup last month amid the Mandelson scandal, and has been facing massive pressure to lurch to the Left.

Details have emerged of a bruising discussion at a meeting of the National Security Council last Friday, less than 24 hours before the American-Israeli strikes began.

Ed Miliband – nicknamed ‘Red Ed’ and touted as a replacement leader – Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper are said to have urged Sir Keir to shun the US assault on Iran, pointing to the domestic political situation.

Security sources said Mr Miliband took a ‘petulant, pacifist, legalistic and very political approach’ at a meeting of the National Security Council last Friday – the day before the US attack began, and just hours after Labour suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Greens in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

He and Ms Reeves are said to have ‘made it quite difficult for the Prime Minister’, while Ms Cooper adopted the ‘cautious approach of the Foreign Office’.

Mr Trump was incensed by Sir Keir’s initial refusal to let the US use UK bases for the joint attacks with Israel – with the Transatlantic wrangling said to have been going on for weeks. 

That was later partially walked back by the PM under huge pressure, with ‘defensive’ actions permitted. There had been warnings that the US could simply use the bases anyway and dare Britain to stop them. 

Mr Trump condemned the premier as ‘disappointing’ and ‘no Churchill’ on Tuesday, as the situation became more personal. 

But at PMQs yesterday Sir Keir accused Mr Trump of lacking a ‘viable, thought-through plan’.

He said letting the US use UK bases to shoot down drones ‘is the special relationship in action’ but ‘hanging on to President Trump’s latest words is not’.

Labour MP John McDonnell told ITV’s Peston last night that he was not surprised Sir Keir rejected the request from the US.

‘I don’t think he had a choice then… we’d just lost a by-election, crushed in a by-election, we’ve got elections coming up in May in local government,’ the former frontbencher said.

‘I’m not sure whether he would have survived as PM if he’d gone along with Trump automatically.’