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The prime minister’s condemnation of Donald Trump’s remarks about the war in Afghanistan are his strongest public criticisms of the president yet.<\/p>\n
They come in a week where circumstances have led Sir Keir Starmer to conclude three times that it was necessary to publicly rebuke a man he has ploughed so much effort into building a strong relationship with.<\/p>\n
I am told Sir Keir, on returning to Downing Street on Friday afternoon, saw it as essential to make his views clear in the most direct terms.<\/p>\n
His tone and body language conveyed his anger, as did his words, in which he said what President Trump had said was “insulting and frankly appalling.”<\/p>\n
The president had claimed that the Nato defence alliance, of which the UK is a member, had sent “some troops” to Afghanistan, but they “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”<\/p>\n
The comments, which are factually inaccurate, have been widely seen as crass and deeply offensive.<\/p>\n
Four hundred and fifty-seven British service personnel died in the conflict and many more suffered life changing injuries.<\/p>\n
The prime minister’s team tell me Sir Keir sees standing up for and defending the armed forces as a first order duty of his role, as both those serving and those killed in conflict can’t speak publicly for themselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sir Keir’s response to the president is the third time in five days he has had to reach a quick judgement on how to calibrate a public response in defending what he sees as first principles under attack from the White House.<\/p>\n