Trump’s Ties Strain as UK Deepens EU Connections in Iran War Context

President Donald Trump’s unpredictable behavior and harsh criticism of America’s longstanding ally are fueling Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s efforts to strengthen ties with the 27-nation European Union bloc.

Britain’s government is set to propose legislation next month aimed at moving the country closer to the EU, as tensions over Iran heighten the UK’s special relationship with the United States. President Trump’s erratic statements and insults towards America’s historic ally are providing a catalyst for Prime Minister Starmer’s push to deepen ties with the EU.

“We have a government that is already eager to move closer towards the EU, and the events in Iran provide an opportunity to speed up that process,” Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group think-tank, told AFP.

The legislation will give ministers powers to align UK standards with evolving EU single market rules, known as “dynamic alignment”. King Charles III is set to announce this legislation on May 13 when he reads out Starmer’s legislative plans for the coming months.

Starmer has consistently called for a deeper economic and security relationship with Europe since his Labour party won the 2024 general election. He has emphasized these calls in recent days, telling Dutch leader Rob Jetten that “he believed the partnership between the UK and the bloc needed to be fit for the challenges we were facing today”.

The EU is Britain’s largest trading partner, while the International Monetary Fund warned this week that the UK will be the advanced economy hardest hit by the Iran conflict. “Certainly Iran has made it more prescient,” said a UK official.

Starmer refused to involve Britain in the US and Israel’s initial strikes on February 28, angering Trump, although he later allowed American forces to use UK bases for limited defensive purposes.

Under pressure at home for his decision to appoint former Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, Starmer has received praise for standing up to Trump amid repeated taunts from the US president. David Henig, an expert on UK’s post-Brexit trade policy, told AFP that “there is now momentum in the UK-EU relationship partly as a result of Trump’s unreliable behaviour”.

The EU legislation could come around the time of the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum, held in June 2016. MPs will have to approve whether to provide the government with a mechanism to adopt EU rules without full parliamentary vote in areas where it has already signed deals with the bloc.

These include trade agreements designed to ease red tape on food and plant exports and plans for an electricity deal that would integrate the UK into the EU’s internal electricity market. Britain and the EU are also aiming to finalize negotiations on a youth mobility scheme before a joint summit in Brussels expected in late June or early July.

Starmer has ruled out rejoining the single market or returning to free movement, but the Liberal Democrats want him to negotiate a customs union with the EU. However, Brexit remains a contentious issue and the hard-right Reform UK party, led by Eurosceptic firebrand Nigel Farage, have branded the legislation “a betrayal” of the referendum’s narrow result.

Surveys regularly show that most Britons regret voting to leave the EU, something Starmer hopes to capitalize on. Rising cost-of-living pressures on family households, blamed on Trump for starting the war without a clear exit plan, could also influence public opinion in favor of a closer relationship with the EU.