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Keir Starmer has responded to US President Donald Trump\u2019s comments that British troops and NATO allies stayed off the frontline in Afghanistan, which have sparked outrage from former servicemen and their families.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments were made during an interview with Fox News, as he suggested that NATO would not support the US if it was asked to.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve never needed them. They\u2019ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan \u2026 and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines\u201d, Trump said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Keir Starmer said: \u201cLet me start by paying tribute to the 457 of our armed services who lost their lives in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will never forget their courage, their bravery, and the sacrifice that they made for their country. There were many also who were injured. Some with life-changing injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so I consider President Trump\u2019s remarks to be insulting, and frankly, appalling. And I\u2019m not surprised that they\u2019ve caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured. And in fact, across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starmer also suggested that Trump should apologise, though he did not explicitly say he should.<\/p>\n
Downing Street also responded to Trump\u2019s quotes, saying that he was \u201cwrong to diminish sacrifice of British troops\u201d in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson told reporters that \u201cthe president was wrong to diminish the role of troops, including British forces\u201d.<\/p>\n
Downing Street said that hundreds of British troops were killed in Afghanistan<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201c457 British personnel were killed in Afghanistan, more wounded. Many suffered life changing injuries, their sacrifice and others were made in service of security and in response to an attack on an ally\u201d, the official added.<\/p>\n While armed forces minister Al Carns, who served five tours in Afghanistan, said UK troops \u201cshed blood, sweat and tears\u201d in the Asian country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n British troops killed in Afghanistan were \u201cheroes who gave their lives in service of our nation\u201d, according to Defence Secretary John Healey.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s comments were also slammed by former Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood, who noted the \u201cimmense\u201d sacrifice paid by NATO allies when the US invoked Article 5 after 9\/11.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Donald Trump says is an absolute insult to not just British troops but all the NATO allies\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n Labour and Tories united in condemning Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n Labour and the Conservatives have been united in the condemnation of Trump\u2019s comments, as Care Minister Stephen Kinnock repeated the claim that the president\u2019s words were wrong.<\/p>\n He said that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks on a regular basis with the US president, and that he is sure he will be raising the comments with the president.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s administration accused the UK and Starmer of \u201cletting down\u201d America over the Chagos Islands. <\/p>\n In response, the prime minister hit out at Trump, accusing him of \u201cwanting to put pressure\u201d on him and Britain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n #Keir #Starmer #issues #statement #Trump #British #soldiers #stayed #front #line #Afghanistan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Prime Minister has spoken. Keir Starmer has responded to US President Donald Trump\u2019s comments that British troops and NATO allies stayed off the frontline in Afghanistan, which have sparked outrage from former servicemen and their families. Trump\u2019s comments were made during an interview with Fox News, as he suggested that NATO would not support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2283,1852,1773,1000,2303,2288,1644,897,1560,2307,1516,2305,898,1783,2306,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-2921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"tag-afghanistan","9":"tag-british","10":"tag-british-army","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-downing-street","13":"tag-front","14":"tag-issues","15":"tag-keir","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-line","18":"tag-nato","19":"tag-soldiers","20":"tag-starmer","21":"tag-statement","22":"tag-stayed","23":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}