Trump: Starmer ‘No Churchill’ — Lord Daniel Hannan On Iran War, Chagos Islands And Britain’s Global Weakness

Ian Collins is joined by Conservative peer Lord Daniel Hannan as Donald Trump’s “no Churchill” swipe at Sir Keir Starmer detonates across Westminster and Washington. Hannan says the criticism has simply “caught up with where 85% of the British public is”, arguing Starmer’s instinctive response to the Iran war has been driven by a rigid, legalistic worldview — and that it’s colliding head-on with a White House that has little patience for international law arguments.The conversation homes in on the Chagos Islands deal and the claim that Britain is being led by a tight circle of “human rights lawyers”, with Hannan warning the government is prioritising abstract legal principles over hard national interests. He suggests Starmer’s repeated insistence that the UK was not involved in the Iran strikes — including remarks made at a Ramadan event — risks looking like political pandering at a moment when Britain’s security, alliances and global credibility are under pressure.Elsewhere, The Times’ Washington Editor Katy Balls assesses the cooling “special relationship” and whether Trump’s anger is personal, strategic, or both — before veteran Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn delivers a stark warning: even with US-Israeli military dominance, Iran’s retaliation could trigger a wider economic shock through the Strait of Hormuz, energy infrastructure vulnerabilities and Gulf disruption, raising the risk of a conflict that spreads well beyond the battlefield. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.