“Very disappointed”: Trump blasts Starmer over Diego Garcia row during Iran strikes

Donald Trump has said he is "very disappointed" in Sir Keir Starmer for initially blocking the US from using the Diego Garcia military base to strike Iran.

The President said the Prime Minister’s refusal to allow the US military to use the base was unlike anything that had "happened between our countries before." 

The UK Government had refused US forces from using Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands, citing international law, but Sir Keir said on Sunday evening that he would allow them access for "specific and limited defensive purposes."

Speaking to The Telegraph, Trump said Sir Keir "took far too long" to change his mind.

He said: "That’s probably never happened between our countries before. It sounds like he was worried about the legality."

Iran launched a series of strikes in retaliation to US and Israeli attacks over the weekend which killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which have hit multiple states and cities in the Middle East including Dubai, Bahrain, and Qatar.

As the American and Israeli airstrikes continued, top Iranian security official Ali Larijani vowed on X that "we will not negotiate with the United States.

"British Armed Forces are also responding to the suspected strike at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which is home to thousands of British airmen and their families, at around midnight on Sunday.

The row surrounding Diego Garcia led the President to withdraw his support for the UK’s controversial Chagos deal to hand over ownership of the Indian Ocean territory to Mauritius and instead lease back the military base.

Trump added: "All of a sudden [Mauritius] was claiming ownership. He should have fought it out and owned it or make him take it, if you want to know the truth. But no, we were very disappointed in Keir."

The drone is believed to have been launched before Sir Keir announced he had allowed US forces to use British bases, rather than in retaliation to the policy shift.

There was no British involvement in the initial wave of strikes carried out by the US and Israel

Two days into the US strikes on Iran, the President said the operation was “well ahead of schedule.”

Trump also suggested Sir Keir should have always approved American use of Diego Garcia, because Iran was responsible for killing "a lot of people from your country."

Without referring to specific cases, he said: "[There are] people without arms and legs and faces that have been blown up. Iran is 95 per cent of those. Those horrible events were caused by Iran."

Speaking to LBC on Monday, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed Diego Garcia was among the UK bases being authorised for the US to use to "deal with some of those launches and strikes."

The Chagos Islands deal has long proved a bone of contention with Trump, after the President told Sir Keir last month he was "making a big mistake" by ceding the archipelago to Mauritius.

Britain is currently leasing the base on a 99-year deal from the Government of Mauritius, which was agreed by Starmer in 2024.

The deal saw the UK transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and was welcomed by the US government as a "historic agreement" at the time.

However, Trump expressed his disapproval with the treaty, writing on Truth Social: "Our relationship with the United Kingdom is a strong and powerful one, and it has been for many years, but prime minister [sic] Starmer is losing control of this important Island [sic] by claims of entities never known of before."