According to a report by Sky News, on Wednesday April 15, 2026, Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the House of Commons on Wednesday that Britain would not be pulled into the Iran war, rebuffing what he described as intense pressure applied to him from multiple directions — including a public threat by President Donald Trump to unravel a UK-US trade deal if London refused to shift its position.
The comments, delivered at Prime Minister’s Questions, were Starmer’s most pointed response yet to growing transatlantic tension over Britain’s refusal to align with Washington on the Iran conflict. Trump had escalated the pressure the previous evening, using a phone interview with Sky News to make clear that Britain’s trade relationship with the United States could be at risk should the UK government continue to hold its current course.
Starmer was unequivocal in his response. “A lot of pressure has been applied to me to take a different course,” the Prime Minister told MPs, “and that pressure included what happened last night. I’m not going to change my mind. I’m not going to yield.”
He further stated: “It is not in our national interest to join this war and we will not do so.”
The Prime Minister’s language — deliberate, personal, and unyielding — appeared designed to close off any speculation that Trump’s public manoeuvre might succeed where quieter diplomatic efforts had not. Rather than frame his position around legal or procedural grounds, Starmer grounded his refusal firmly in national interest, a framing that puts the burden of any diplomatic fallout squarely on those applying the pressure……See More
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