Pete Hegseth takes brutal swipe at UK as he rages at Starmer over Iran war | World | News
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has launched a veiled attack on Britain over the war in Iran. Speaking at a briefing on the war at the Pentagon, he thanked Israel for being “a brave, capable and willing ally”, before suggesting the US’s Western allies should follow suit.
Although the defense secretary did not specifically name Britain in his remarks, he addressed them to “the rest of the world” and “our so-called allies”. He said: “The rest of the world and the rest of our so-called allies have seen what real capabilities look like. They should take some notes.”
Donald Trump and his administration vocally criticized the UK’s response to the war for what they saw as a lack of action and refusal to help.
Nearly a month after the war began, the defense minister, who asked Britain to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, said the navy “must be ready to step up.”
He said: “There are countries all over the world that need to be ready to step into this critical waterway. Last I checked, there also needs to be a big, bad Royal Navy that might be ready to do this sort of thing.”
The US President also compared the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers to “toys” and told Sir Keir Starmer not to bother sending any ships to the Gulf.
He said during the White House Easter event: “He’s got a long way to go. The UK’s got a long way to go… We don’t want another Neville Chamberlain, do we agree? We don’t want Neville Chamberlain.”
The President claimed he had asked Britain to deploy two aircraft carriers to support US operations, and the Prime Minister responded by saying he should have consulted his team.
Describing the meeting, he told guests: “I said: ‘You have two old, broken-down aircraft carriers. Do you think you can send them?’ ‘Ohhh, I’ll have to ask my team.’
“I said: ‘You are the Prime Minister, there is no need for this.’ ‘No, no, no, I have to ask my team. ‘My team needs to meet, we’ll meet next week.’ But the war has already begun. “Next week the war will be over in three days.”
