LONDON — United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggested he won’t be bullied by Donald Trump in a further demonstration of how the U.S. president’s war on Iran has frayed the so-called special relationship between their two countries.

“My own view is that a lot of what is said and done has been to put pressure on me to change my mind, but I’m not going to do so,” Starmer told Beth Rigby of Sky News for the Electoral Dysfunction podcast when asked about recent criticism from Trump. “When it came to the Iran war, I’ve said we’re not going to get dragged in because my judgment is that’s not in the interests of our country.”

Trump has repeatedly tried to strong-arm Starmer to change tack on issues including the extraction of oil in the North Sea and the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the site of a joint U.K.-U.S. military base on Diego Garcia. The president had sought to use the base to carry out the initial U.S. attack on Iran. The two leaders have also clashed in recent months over Greenland and tariffs.

At the end of the interview, the British prime minister was asked what advice he would give to himself in 2024 as he began his premiership. “I’m not going to be pushed around by other people,” he said. “I’m not going to be persuaded to do things that I don’t think are right for our country.”

As Starmer was conducting his interview on Thursday, Trump was speaking at a Cabinet meeting at the White House, where he again criticized the British premier. Trump said he was “disappointed” in Starmer because he “did something that was shocking: he didn’t want to help us.” He also dismissed U.K. aircraft carriers as “toys” compared to the U.S. fleet.

Starmer cited concerns about the legality of the attack on Iran, after making his initial refusal to the U.S. But when the Islamic Republic retaliated with a barrage of attacks on U.K. allies in the Gulf, the prime minister partially retreated, allowing the U.S. to use British bases for “specific and limited” defensive purposes by targeting Iranian missile facilities. He later expanded that remit to include efforts to degrade Iranian capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The initial call made by Starmer still appeared to rankle Trump on Thursday, when he referred to Diego Garcia.

“When we needed the island to land that beautiful B-2 bomber, we were told we can’t use it,” Trump said. “We’d have to fly back to Missouri, which is a 17-hour flight, as opposed to a couple of hours. And I said, ‘you got to be kidding.’ Not good. They made a big mistake.”

Trump said that despite disagreements with Starmer, he still expects to welcome King Charles III on a state visit later this year, describing the monarch as “a friend of mine” and “a great gentleman.”

“He’s going to be here very soon, as you know, we’re going to have a state dinner,” Trump said. “It’s going to be great.”

In his interview, Starmer also:

•Said “nobody was criticizing me more than myself” over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite the Labour grandee’s known ties to the late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein

•Said he expects his former deputy, Angela Rayner, to be “playing a leading role in this Labour government” in the future

•Said he intends to lead Labour into the next election, where the electorate will judge him

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