Keir Starmer has compared Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin in a new pointed attack.

The prime minister has travelled to the Middle East to help negotiations around the US’s ceasefire with Iran, following weeks of economic turbulence caused by Trump’s attacks on the Middle Eastern country.

Speaking to ITV News’ Robert Peston, Starmer said: “I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world and saying to families across the country, saying to businesses across the country: ‘We’ve just got to be, we’ve got to put up with being on the international market’.”

Iran retaliated to the US and Israeli strikes by effectively closing the major shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz.

That caused international oil prices to soar, impacting the cost of living around the world – including in the UK – comparable to the chaos caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The prime minister also distanced himself from the US president’s verbal strong attacks against Tehran after Trump threatened to wipe out Iranian civilisation unless it ended the war earlier this week.

Starmer said: “Let me be really clear about this – they are not words I would use, ever use, because I come at this with our British values and principles.

“They’re not language I would use.

“Use those words, a language like that myself, very important that I’m clear that for the United Kingdom, we have our principles, we have our values. We will be guided by them in everything that we do.

“That’s why I’ve said, and obviously it’s caused a degree of criticism and pressure in the last few weeks. I’ve been saying we are not going to be dragged into this war because I say there must be a lawful basis that matters if you’re going to commit our service personnel to.”

His words come as the special relationship between the UK and the US appears under immense strain due to the Iran war.

Trump has compared Starmer to Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister who championed a Nazi appeasement policy before World War 2.

But the prime minister has reiterated that the UK would not be “dragged” into the war, either despite this repeated criticism from the US.

Starmer said: “From the get go we’ve been monitoring this situation so I’m pretty clear on my own mind about what we’ve agreed and what the use of the bases are and that is a really important point of principle because we have to learn the lessons of Iraq.

“We need to be clear where we stand as a country and I’m the British Prime Minister, I make decisions on what’s in the British national interest and that is my focus. And notwithstanding for noise and the pressure and the rhetoric, that has been my firm focus throughout this.”

The PM also said Israel’s attacks on Lebanon should not have happened – another split from the US, where officials say the strikes did not breach any ceasefire.

While he stopped short of calling Israel’s attacks on Iran a “breach” of the ceasefire – claiming he does not have access to all the details of the agreement – he did call the strikes “wrong”.

Starmer said: “That shouldn’t be happening. That should stop. That’s my strong view. And therefore the question isn’t a technical one of whether it’s a breach of the agreement or not.

“This one is actually a matter of principles as far as I’m concerned.

“In a sense, my argument would be it should be included in the ceasefire, and that’s the important part, the overall approach.”

Away from Trump, Starmer also insisted that Britain will not be able to “go back to normal”.

“I firmly believe that when we had the global shock of the 2008 global financial crash, when we had the shock of Covid, the response was the wrong response.

“What I mean by that is there was a rush to get back to normal, to get back to the status quo. And never to change things fundamentally,” he said.

“And the normal and the status quo weren’t working for 20 years.

“They haven’t worked – living standards haven’t improved, public services have been decimated and people have felt more distant from politics.

“We can’t aspire or want to get back to the normal. We have to change that. We need to respond with strength in a number of important fields.”

The PM added that the consequences of this war are “going to be long felt” and Brits cannot “immunise ourselves from that”, pointing to the economic consequences the UK is already feeling from Iran’s closure of the major shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz.

He said he wants to remove barriers to growth – including being closer to the EU.