Name: Donald Trump and Tony Blair weigh in on UK's Iran response | BBC Newscast
Uploaded: 2026-03-08T16:43:21.000Z
Duration: 32 min 31 s
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Patrick Nutcracker is the word I would use.

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I thought you were going to call me Nutcracker because I said your name.

You could say Keir Starm has been Nutcrackered by comments from Sir Tony Blair and President Trump.

Both of whom are figures not universally loved by people in his own party.

But their status as a former incredibly successful, in many ways, Labour Prime Minister and the current occupant of the White House means that criticism from them is not something that Keir Starmer would choose to have.

And it has brought to life the political awkwardness of the raging, dangerous war in the Middle east that it has just become over a week old.

Can I just say, before we get into a very serious conversation, I think Henry at Home is now something that should be trademarked.

Well, as I told you both, I was at a wedding last week and a big fan of the podcast who I'd not met before came up to me and said, you're Henry at home.

And so, you know, I do have a surname too, by the way, in case anyone's wondering, it's Zeffman.

And I appear on other bits of the BBC from BBC offices over the course of the week, but

I'm very happy on Sundays to be Henry at home.

You're Henry at home and I'm BBC Laura Kane.

Thing is, once you've got a name, that's just what you get.

Couldn't it be a whole, whole lifetime with interior design tips?

But when it takes off, we won't, we won't be getting any slice of it.

So the conversation actually on the airwaves is all about what the US president says about the UK's military support or not.

And Donald Trump, in one of his late night messages on social media, slagged off, let's just say, slacked off what's meant to be his closest ally, the UK and its Prime Minister.

And he said that the US doesn't need the uk.

He said that this war in the Middle east is basically already been won by America and Israel and so what if the UK is now thinking about sending two aircraft carriers?

the reality is the UK is the UK has only got one aircraft carrier that's in any state to be sent to the Gulf.

But even by Donald Trump's measure, it is a pretty extraordinary digital attack on your bezzy mate across the Atlantic.

Well, I think there's two levels on which you can look at this.

There is the frame of Sir Keir Starmer spent 15 or so months trying to get as close to Donald Trump as possible.

And that strategy has clearly gone down in complete failure.

it's very hard to see their relationship returning to what it was, even with this very capricious president.

This feels much more like the situation that Theresa May ended up in with Donald Trump, where just for ages, he, he was belittling her in public.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister has managed to avoid putting himself in the midst of on the side of a war, which public opinion polling suggests so far is unpopular in the uk.

And he's also clashing with a US president who has never been popular in the uk.

So on that level, politically, as sort of slightly kind of glib as it might sound, I think they're quite pleased with this in parts of the government.

But it's the question of that competing impulse between the strategic priority this government has had since President Trump returned to the White House and the political imperative this government has to find ways not to annoy the British public.

And then I think there's a third element as well, actually

is whether or not this means anything of substance.

So the Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, was saying to us this morning is, oh, focus on the substance, focus on the substance.

That is, ignore Donald Trump's late night messages on social media.

I would say that this is about what's in the UK's interest.

It's for the US President to decide what he thinks is in the US national interest, and

But it is our job as the UK government to decide what's in the UK national interest.

And that doesn't mean simply agreeing with other countries or outsourcing our foreign policy to other countries.

We have to be able to take those decisions.

Of course, we have a long, deep, important security partnership with the United States, but

we also have some issues where we disagree in the British interest.

We're seeing these pictures here of President Trump and Keir Starmer laughing and joking as they did in the Oval Office.

The King Handing over this invitation to come and have tea with the King.

This is a public and serious spatula between the Prime Minister and the man who's meant to be our closest ally.

Well, you'll forgive me that I focus on the substance rather than on social media posts.

And I've learned this long enough to know.

Should we just ignore him on social media post?

If you follow every single social media post, you spend an awful lot of time doing social media posts in response.

Well, the President used to spend a lot of time doing social media posts.

I think the same substance we should concentrate on is what is the right thing to do.

So the politics of this actually could, you might posit, as some people in government might hope, you end up with a sort of unintentional Hugh Grant in love actually moment for Keir Starmer.

He ends up getting the respect of some people for having made Donald Trump cross.

The other way then of looking at this be point four is actually the UK government potentially has ended up in the worst of all worlds because they have made itself unpopular with its allies, many of them particularly Americans.

But also, we understand, across the Gulf, the Cypriots, for example, have been cross about what they perceive as being a lack of support, but

Because although we're not wholeheartedly in this war in the way that America would like, there are American bombers that will be taking off from British bases, there are RAF jets in the skies in the Middle east shooting down and intercepting Iranian drones and missiles.

So it's a kind of in and out, you know, Goldilocks position, isn't it?

You know, not, not quite hot enough, not quite cool enough.

That may prove in time to look like actually something politically convenient, or it might just be awkward and you end up making everyone cross.

Yes, because this is really about what the President posts online.

As distinct from a war on Iran, which is something that all of the people in the world are wondering, when does it.

And so Yvette Cooper's really trying to separate out what the President says from what the underlying sort of relationship is.

And she was also trying to, I think, have a bit of a pop at Tony Blair.

So some of the other reporting this morning has been that Tony Blair told a private event that he hoped wouldn't be late.

The expectation was that it was not be Leaked.

And he said what we would expect him to say, that America is your ally, they're an indispensable cornerstone for your security.

You'd better show up when they want you to.

So Tony Blair there all over the front pages this morning, attacking Keir Starmer's decision to sit out the original attacks on this war.

But it was interesting here, Defense hearing Yvette Cooper talk about this this morning, who of course, was a minister in Tony Blair's government.

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Donald Trump and Tony Blair weigh in on UK's Iran response | BBC Newscast

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