Has Trump just ended the 'Special Relationship'?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You might think, just days into a major conflict in the Middle East, that Donald Trump and Keir Starmer would be speaking regularly, supporting each other, and coordinating among allies. That's how it normally works in the 'Special Relationship' right?
Instead, Trump has taken to The Sun to blast the Prime Minister as "not helpful", accusing him of imperilling the transatlantic alliance, and suggesting that his decision not to join US strikes may have been because he is worried about losing Muslim votes. Keir Starmer, for his part, has also issued veiled criticism of the US approach - telling the Commons that the UK does not believe in regime change "from the skies". It's a remarkable breakdown in relations - does it mark the end of the 'Special Relationship'?
Later, a new poll following the Gorton and Denton by-election puts the Greens in second place with Labour languishing on 16%. Why is Starmer so quick to label the Greens extremist when he wouldn't say the same about Reform? And how does Labour address a dual populist threat from the Left and the Right?
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.3 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.9 | President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes. |
| 0:19.2 | But it is my duty to judge what is in Britain's national interest. |
| 0:25.7 | That is what I've done and I stand by it. |
| 0:29.9 | For the last 15 months, Kea Stama has been a Donald Trump whisperer. |
| 0:35.4 | He has placed enormous political capital in managing his relationship |
| 0:40.1 | with a quixotic American president. That appears to have come to an end. It's not quite clear yet |
| 0:47.6 | whether Kirstama is dumping Trump or Trump is dumping Stama, but the words between the two are hardly warm and there's |
| 0:58.5 | not much of a special relationship in any of it. Welcome to the newsagents. The Newsagents. It's John. It's Lewis. And what we've seen over the course of the last 48 hours or so |
| 1:15.7 | since the Americans began their military operations in Iran is bit by bit a gap, |
| 1:22.0 | slender at first, and now really quite substantial, emerged between the UK government and the US. |
| 1:28.2 | We've seen the evolution, as we was talking about yesterday, of the position, |
| 1:32.2 | which is initially that the British government has refused to say |
| 1:36.2 | whether they believe that the action is legal. |
| 1:39.5 | They initially refused to allow the Americans to use our military assets in the region. |
| 1:44.8 | That changed yesterday when they were asking for help, repelling Iranian missiles against American |
| 1:52.4 | targets and others in the region. |
| 1:54.9 | But Kyristama went into the House of Commons and made it very clear that he disagrees |
| 2:00.5 | with the idea of trying |
| 2:01.9 | to impose regime change from the air and made it as clear, I think, as he probably can, that |
| 2:08.5 | he doesn't think that this action is legal. That relationship has now worsened again just |
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