In November 2000, the Republican George W Bush was elected US president. He succeeded the Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who was on very good terms with Britain’s then-Labour prime minister, Tony Blair. I was told by American diplomats at the time that Mr Blair asked Mr Clinton how best to handle the new president.
Mr Clinton told Mr Blair that “a British prime minister can never get too close to an American president”. The wisdom at the time seemed obvious.
The so-called “special relationship” between Britain and the US had emerged at the end of the Second World War. In 2000, it was still the centrepiece of British foreign policy, but the “special” nature of that relationship is less obvious now with US President Donald Trump at the helm in Washington. The decision of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to delay full support for the American attacks on Iran has become a peculiar yet continuing transatlantic row.
With their usual inventive genius, some British newspapers have been comparing the troubled Trump-Starmer relationship with the plot of the 2003 British film Love Actually. In the film – which, as the name suggests, is a love story – the British prime minister (played by Hugh Grant) stands up to the rude and predatory US president (Billy Bob Thornton). That’s a bit of fun rather than a significant political insight especially since we are enduring a horrific war with real casualties and potentially expanding dangers stretching from the Mediterranean to the coast of Sri Lanka.
Moreover, the real-life Trump-Starmer disagreement involves the British government’s initial refusal immediately to allow the US access to UK military facilities in the run-up to the air strikes on Iran. Access has been granted now. Britain’s Royal Navy is also offering support, sending an aircraft carrier and a destroyer to the region.
Mr Trump’s response however has been – in effect – too little, too late. On social media, he offered blunt criticism of the British government: “The United Kingdom our once Great Ally maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East…. That’s OK Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
If “we” – meaning the US – had “already won” the war, you may wonder why the bombs, rockets and drones are still exploding, a vast geographical area from Lebanon to the UAE and beyond remains under attack, oil prices are through the roof and air travel in the region ranges from difficult to impossible.
However, comments made in the past few days by Mr Blair at a private meeting and then widely reported suggest that the former British prime minister agrees with Mr Trump. Mr Blair is reported to have said that Mr Starmer “should have backed America from the very beginning”. He is also said to have told a private Jewish news event that since the US is an “indispensable cornerstone” of British security, “you had better show up when they want you to”.
All this has echoes of that past advice given to Mr Blair himself about how to navigate his relationship with Mr Bush. But the world has changed greatly since 2000, and so has the supposed US-UK “special relationship”.
The failure of the American-led war in Iraq that began in 2003 was compounded by the two-decades-long failed struggle against the Taliban in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attack on the US in 2001. Both these wars were strongly supported by the British. Nevertheless, the administration of former US president Joe Biden pulled out of Afghanistan so quickly that the British found it difficult to keep up, amid rumblings that the UK was “informed” rather than “consulted” about ending the allied role in Afghanistan.
This occasionally bumpy shared history and the unpredictable nature of the Trump presidency suggests that Downing Street must tread carefully.
Britain is now of course involved in the Iran conflict. The aircraft carrier – HMS Prince of Wales – and the air defence destroyer HMS Dragon are being made ready to sail to the region. British sources do not say so publicly but if Washington wishes the UK to be a reliable ally, it might be advisable to alert the UK earlier about plans to start a war in the Middle East. In that old air force wisdom, if you want someone with you at the time of landing it is advisable to have them on board for take-off.
The “special relationship” between the US and UK has, however, navigated disagreements in the past. In this column last week, we noted that the UK refused to send troops to help the US in the Vietnam War. Britain managed to avoid that horrendous conflict. So – incidentally – did Mr Trump, avoiding the draft on medical grounds.
But perhaps, the most important insight of all comes from an American friend of mine at the US Department of State. He once laughed when I used the phrase US-UK “special relationship”. Why are you laughing? I asked. He replied: “Because ‘special relationship’ is what we Americans say when we want to tickle the belly of the Brits.”
Brutal, but honest.
