The United Kingdom has been an ally of the United States since 1941. Both were founder members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949. The UK hosts several US Air Force bases. The US Navy regularly visits British ports. British politicians often say it has a ‘special relationship’ with the United States. This is very seldom mentioned by Americans. U.S. presidents often state that they have no truer friend than Israel.
London claims that it gains from the so-called special relationship inasmuch as it is advantageous for the United Kingdom to have the mightiest military as its ally. It has been allowed to purchase advanced military equipment that the US does not sell to most countries at any price. The UK is part of the Five Eyes agreement whereby it and the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada share all intelligence. Britain has also concluded favourable trade agreements with the United States since leaving the European Union in 2020.
Not everyone in the United Kingdom is enamoured of the United States. Reactionary right-wingers dislike American mastery and hate the fact that the UK will never regain superpower status. They regard Americans as uncouth and boastful. The far left sees the United States as pandemonium. They revile its regressive capitalism, anti-environmentalism and their different ways of aggression. Public opinion in the United Kingdom is now less favourable to the USA than at any point since 1945.
The Prime Minister of the UK, Sir Keir Starmer, initially refused to fight Iran when Israel and the USA launched their illegal war of aggression. Moreover, he declined to grant permission to the US Air Force to use British bases for their attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Royal Air Force base at Fairford has a very long runway that is needed by some of the USAF’s heaviest bombers.
Donald Trump publicly fulminated that Starmer is ' no Churchill’ – referencing the UK’s Prime Minister in the Second World War. Starmer argued that there was no legal basis for the war. Even though Israel and the United States had not claimed that Iran was going to attack them imminently, the doctrine of preemption was inoperative in this case. Iran and the USA were engaged in negotiations in Switzerland right before the United States and Israel attacked. The Iranians had even made a very generous offer to the USA of a deal more favourable than the Americans secured under President Obama. The USA suddenly broke off the talks and launched a dastardly and treacherous massive attack without a declaration of war. It was like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941.
Sir Keir Starmer said it was not in the United Kingdom’s national interest to go to war. His approval ratings are in the doldrums at -50%. But in refusing to join this US-Israeli war, he was in agreement with 80% of the British public. In January 2026, there were grave doubts about Starmer’s premiership. There was talk that his own cabinet would force him to resign. Several senior Labour Party figures called for Starmer to step down as leader of the Labour Party and, therefore, as PM. But the Iran War has pushed that off the agenda.
The Iranians responded to the Israeli and American slaughter of civilians by firing at Israel and at US Military bases in Gulf Arab countries. The US has bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Iranians have seldom struck any of these because they have such good air defence. But whether by accident or design, the Iranians have hit oil and gas installations in Gulf Arab countries. The United Kingdom also has military bases in the Persian Gulf. The UK also has two sovereign bases in Cyprus. There were drone and missile attacks on the British bases on that Mediterranean island. These were possibly launched by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon. Starmer therefore said that the United Kingdom would allow the United States to use British bases to strike Iranian missile sites, and this was an exclusively defensive operation.
The Royal Air Force has flown sorties out of the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain to shoot down incoming Iranian drones and missiles. But the RAF has not taken part in attacks on Iran.
Trump expressed his frustration that the UK and other NATO countries had not been more helpful, despite the USA having helped them. Trump revealed his ignorance yet again. After 9/11, the USA became the only member country to ever invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter, saying an attack on one is an attack on all, and all NATO countries sent troops to help the USA in Afghanistan. NATO is a defensive alliance – it is not there to help its members fight wars of choice. Many NATO countries have fought since 1949 and not invoked the charter.
Donald J Trump said the war was won after 2 weeks. After 10 days, he said it was completed, almost. He said the USA did not need or want the help of allies. Then he demanded this help. He also keeps changing his mind about his aims. It is regime change, and then it is not. He claims regime change has already occurred. He wanted to wipe out Iran’s nuclear program despite claiming he already did that in 2025. Trump tweeted that the UK should get its own oil, and the United States will not help the UK.
There are some in the United Kingdom who argue that the UK should go further and join the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. Among those who take this line are Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the main opposition, the Conservative Party. Reform UK is an insurgent right-wing party that is leading in the polls. They also argue that the UK should fight alongside the United States and Israel. They excoriate Starmer for his pusillanimity and say one cannot fight a half-war.
Left-wingers are almost all opposed to this war. They say it is illegal, unnecessary and unjust. Some state that even shooting down incoming Iranian missiles is taking sides. If the UK is neutral, why does it not shoot down Israeli and American munitions aimed at Iran? There have been significant anti-war demonstrations in the UK, as in the USA.
Although the Labour Government is semi-supportive of the USA and Israel regarding Iran, the Labour grassroots are deeply unhappy about it. The Green Party has only 5 MPs out of 650, but has surged in the polls partly because of its passionate anti-war stance. The Liberal Democratic Party is also left-wing and has staunchly opposed even indirect involvement in this war. The Liberal Democrat leader even said that Charles III’s state visit to the USA in April 2026 should be cancelled because of Trump’s rude remarks about the United Kingdom.
Since the United Kingdom left the EU, some in the UK feel that it needs a close relationship with the United States more than ever. When Trump introduced tariffs on many countries in 2025, his tariffs on the UK were quite modest.
The NATO target is for all its member states to spend 2% of GDP on defence. The United Kingdom is spending 2.5%, but many people say that is not enough. Countries bordering Russia are spending 6% in many cases. The British Armed Forces are weaker now than in the 1990s. That is why some Britons say that the UK desperately needs to keep on the right side of the United States. Trump has publicly mused about leaving NATO. The USA has 30% of NATO’s troops and 60% of its major military assets.
Fortunately for the British, Trump is an ardent royalist. He admired the late Queen Elizabeth II and has a good rapport with King Charles III. Charles III is known to privately despise Trump, but as the nation’s chief diplomat, he knows he must keep personal feelings out of it, and he played the gracious host when Trump visited the UK in 2025. And Charles III will be the perfect guest when he goes on a state visit to Washington, D.C. this month. Trump is a climate change disbeliever and pulled the USA out of the Paris Deal. His Majesty the King has been an environmentalist since long before it was fashionable.
There are those in the USA and UK who said that the Trump Administration is an aberration. Trump has under 3 years left in office. Sanity will one day be restored. Therefore, it is wise for the two nations to maintain their amity and ride out the storm. Vice President J D Vance is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2028. He was opposed to the Iran War. On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump repeatedly vowed he would not start any wars, and he specifically mentioned Iran as a country he would not fight. If J D Vance were president, the USA would be more circumspect. Vance is also known to have no affection for the UK or Europe in general.
The Republican Party in the USA is down in the opinion polls. Trump’s personal approval ratings are at their lowest ever and falling the longer this war goes on. The Republicans will probably do badly in the midterms in November 2026. This will hamper Trump in his last two years in the White House. It will make it difficult for his party to win the presidency in 2028.