LONDON: US President Donald Trump has threatened to renege on a trade agreement with the UK, limiting the impact of US tariffs, as he again criticised Britain’s lack of support in the Iran war.
But Trump, who has repeatedly slammed the policies of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said strains in the relationship with the US’s NATO ally would “not at all” negatively affect King Charles III’s state visit to the US later this month.
“We gave them a good trade deal, better than I had to, which can always be changed,” the US president was quoted as saying by Sky News on Wednesday.
The comments came in a phone interview with Sky News US reporter Mark Stone.
London and Washington concluded a trade agreement last year capping US tariffs at 10 percent on most British manufactured goods.
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In return, the UK agreed to open its markets further to American ethanol and beef, sparking concerns in the country.
At the time, it was an advantageous agreement for London, which benefited from the lowest tariffs granted by the US.
This advantage has, however, been weakened since the Supreme Court struck down some of the US tariffs and Washington retaliated by imposing a temporary 10 percent tariff on almost all of its imports pending a new tariff regime by July.
While Trump praised his good relationship with Starmer at the time of the agreement, transatlantic ties have since deteriorated, particularly over the war in the Middle East.
Starmer angered Trump by refusing to allow British bases to be used for the US’s initial strikes on Iran last month.
He later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a “specific and limited defensive purpose”.
“It’s a relationship where when we asked them for help, they were not there,” Trump told Sky News.
“When we needed them, they were not there. When we didn’t need them, they were not there. They still aren’t there,” he insisted.
Starmer’s Labour government, which has sought to build bridges with Trump since his return to the White House in January 2025, has recently hardened its rhetoric toward its historic ally.
Finance Minister Rachel Reeves on Tuesday hit out at the “folly” of Trump launching a war with Iran “without a clear exit plan”.
Starmer told parliament on Monday that Donald Trump was wrong to threaten to destroy Iranian civilisation, while on Sunday Health Minister Wes Streeting criticised his language as “incendiary, provocative, outrageous”.
Against this backdrop, Reeves was scheduled to meet with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday as part of an International Monetary Fund meeting set to detail the economic impact of the conflict.
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