Ex-Attorney General points to Keir Starmer's 'reset opportunity' with Donald Trump as special relationship fizzles out

Susanna Siddell
Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:53:35 +0000

A former Attorney General has eyed up a "reset opportunity" for Keir Starmer and Donald Trump after the infamous special relationship began to fizzle out over the Iran war.

The British Prime Minister and US Commander-in-Chief have been at odds with one another ever since Sir Keir refused to give access to RAF bases to US forces to launch attacks on Tehran at the end of February.

While the PM eventually caved to the President's plea, Mr Trump has appeared to refuse to let go of his disillusionment with Britain, unleashing personal jibes during a series of damning press conferences last month.

But, last week, it was confirmed King Charles - Britain's strongest, most powerful soft power figure - would make a state visit to the US in just a few weeks' time.

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The 47th US President - and monarchist - has never made his love and admiration for the British Royal Family a secret, regularly mentioning his mother was British-born.

However, the timing of the visit has raised eyebrows over what the trip means for the tumultuous nature of the US-UK relationship as it operates today.

Sir Michael Ellis has suggested the much-awaited trip will be a key turning point in the relationship and could offer the PM to "reset" the pair's friendship.

"Fortunately, the King is a consummate diplomat," Sir Michael told GB News. "And it's true that UK-US relations are not at their best point at the moment.

"I think Trump does take Starmer's actions quite personally. He does tend to act on personal relations, but hence his excellent relations with the King reflects.

"Because the King is such a good diplomat, this is actually an opportunity to reset things between our two countries and there is historical precedent for that."

"In fact, the Royal Family have in the past done an awful lot in difficult times on the diplomatic scene to improve things.

"I'm thinking, particularly after the Suez Crisis, there were quite strained relations between our two countries.

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"But the Queen went to a visit in 1957. She saw at the time President there, and it was Dwight Eisenhower, and reset things quite well after what had been quite strained issues."

On another occasion in 1939, President Roosevelt was "not keen" on the appeasement of Neville Chamberlain, during a time when relations had "got a bit frosty".

However, when the late Queen Mother went with King George VI at that time, that really helped things along, Sir Michael insisted.

When probed on whether the King could encourage the President to "put him in line" instead of "smoothing things over", the Attorney General shook his head.

"No, I don't think he'll do that. You can see how good a diplomat he is bringing ourselves right back to the current political situation," he said.

"Zelensky is a great fan of the King and so is Donald Trump. We all know that Zelensky and Trump don't get on, and yet both sides have great respect for the King. That's an example too.

"We also know that Gulf leaders and leaders in the Middle East have an absolute respect for the King, and they adore him and what he stands for.

"So I think he's shown that he's able to transcend the momentary politics, the petty politics, the rivalries and so on.

"And sometimes the rudeness of direct, day-to-day current affairs transcends that and says this is an opportunity to reset things, to actually show that the relationship goes beyond the current Prime Minister and the current President and transcends the arc of history."