Where does the ‘Special Relationship’ stand after war with Iran?

We British love to talk about the “Special Relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States, because it can mean whatever you want it to mean. It can be proof of the enduring bond between the two Anglophone nations, or a relic which demonstrates why Britain needs to rethink its global posture.

Self-evidently it matters more to Britain, the world’s sixth-largest economy with a population of 70 million, than it ever will to America, the biggest economy and home to nearly 350 million. Recently, as President Trump authorized the beginning of Operation Epic Fury against Iran, it has been placed under renewed strain.

Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, were never going to be soulmates: a reckless, bombastic, cartoonish New York child of privilege who believes himself infallible, and a blank-faced, nitpicking sanctimonious human rights lawyer who views the messy compromises of politics with contempt. Clearly Starmer would have preferred a Kamala Harris presidency, but he has so far negotiated the worst obstacles and occasionally managed to win over Trump in ways that have eluded other world leaders. But the true test of a friendship is when one party needs something. That was where the “Special Relationship” hit its most recent, bone-jarring bump.

More than a week before the conflict started on Feb. 28, the United States had requested permission to use facilities at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire in south-west England and Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for the planned campaign. The American military has been using both for decades: Fairford is governed by the NATO Status of Forces Agreement 1951, while arrangements at Diego Garcia are contained in an exchange of notes from 1966.

Trump will have expected the answer yes: not simply because he expects allies to be obedient and........

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