Tony Blair Urges UK To Maintain Ties With Trump Era America

Tony Blair has called on the UK to maintain its close ties with Donald Trump’s America even when it’s “difficult or unpopular”.

The former Labour prime minister has penned a brutal essay calling for a policy reset within the party.

Deep fractures between the White House and Downing Street have emerged in recent months after Starmer refused Trump’s requests for aide in the Iran war and turned down US pleas to send warships to the Middle East.

The US president has subsequently compared Starmer to Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister who proposed Nazi appeasement before World War 2.

Blair, who went to war in Iraq out of support for US president George W Bush, suggested Starmer needed to hold onto the relationship with America.

He claimed that the UK-US relationship “has always been an unequal partnership”, adding: “America is much more powerful than any single allied country, is the dominant force and therefore is the ‘shot-caller’.

“This has been true at least for the last half-century. Most American presidents have been too polite to say this; but they always thought it and more important, acted on it.

“That is why I don’t believe with the Trump Presidency we’re witnessing a ‘rupture’ [in relations].”

Blair claimed it was more of a “reckoning”, and it was time for the UK to wake up to “some home truths” from the States.

He also defended Trump’s repeated attacks on the Nato defence alliance, saying: “Though American security strategy is couched in very ‘America First’ terms, it identifies the principal threats – in the Arctic from Russia; longer term, globally, from China; and in the Middle East from Iran – no differently from how Europe sees the world.

“President Trump has demanded increases in Nato spending not dissolution of the alliance.”

Blair said the UK’s relationship with the US was now “weaker” after Starmer refused Trump’s request for American access to military bases for preemptive strikes on Iran earlier this year.

This move was widely welcomed by the general voters.

Public First research for Politico found that more than half (53%) of the UK public viewed America as a negative force globally in April, up from 35% in December.

But Blair said: “I understand the reasons for refusal but it’s not the best way to treat our ally.”

He added: “If you want to play you have to be sat at the table. And bring something to the table.”

However, he struck a more sympathetic tone when he added: “I know how hard it is to be an ally of the USA.

“We were its staunchest supporter post 9/11. We went through Afghanistan and Iraq together. But it mattered deeply to America and so it mattered to us also.

“America remains the indispensable core of Britain’s security alliance. But staying with it means even when it is difficult or unpopular.”

He warned: “The cumulative risk for Britain is that we become frighteningly insular: wary of America because of President Trump.”

Blair later adding on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “I’m not saying the Labour Party should love Donald Trump, get close to Donald Trump.

“I’m simply saying the American relationship matters to Britain.”

Blair was announced as a senior executive on Trump’s “Board of Peace” earlier this year, an initiative meant to initially run Gaza following the end of the Israel-Hamas war.

His appointment sparked fury within the Middle East because of Blair’s past involvement in Iraq.

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