Donald Trump has launched another rant at the UK for its stance on his war in Iran, saying the US ‘won’t be there to help you anymore’.

The president called on countries that are struggling to obtain jet fuel to ‘build up some delayed courage’ and risk Iranian attacks by sending ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump is under increasing pressure from rising global fuel prices as a direct result of the Iran war, which he launched alongside Israel at the end of February.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, he said: ‘All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.

‘You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.

‘Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!’

According to the Financial Times, analysts and industry consultants believe British airlines will start to be hit by a jet fuel shortage at the end of April if pressures on the supply chain continue.

It is expected that the last known shipment from the Middle East will arrive in the UK this week.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is holding his second Cobra meeting in two weeks as his government scrambles to handle the impact of the war on the UK’s cost of living.

He has drawn Trump’s ire by taking an increasingly vocal stance against the US, telling a crowd at his local election campaign launch yesterday: ‘This is not our war and we are not going to be dragged into it.’

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The Royal Navy will start seizing Russia’s shadow fleet vessels when they slip through UK waters, the prime minister has announced.

Sir Keir Starmer said the UK would join northern European allies in intercepting the tankers as part of a drive to ‘go after’ the sanction-breaking ships fuelling Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

He said: ‘Putin is rubbing his hands at the war in the Middle East because he thinks higher oil prices will let him line his pockets.

‘That’s why we’re going after his shadow fleet even harder, not just keeping Britain safe but starving Putin’s war machine of the dirty profits that fund his barbaric campaign in Ukraine.

‘He and his cronies should be in no doubt, we will always defend our sovereignty and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.’

Moscow’s shadow fleet is reported to be made up of more than a thousand ageing tankers.

They illicitly ship oil and other goods out of Russia by flying the flags of other countries, with the aim of evading sanctions imposed by the West since the conflict began.

The Prime Minister has given approval for the UK to start seizing shadow fleet vessels as he travels to Helsinki, Finland, for a summit with national leaders from the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).

The JEF, a military coalition of 10 northern European countries led by the UK, aims to defend against Russian incursions.

It also includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

British forces have already been involved in tracking shadow fleet vessels for several years and have supported operations by other countries to seize the ships.

In January, the UK assisted in the seizure of the oil tanker Marinera by the US.

Previously known as the Bella-1, the Russian-flagged vessel was captured by American forces aided by RAF aircraft and the British supply ship RFA Tideforce in the Atlantic.

Later that same month, Royal Navy patrol boat HMS Dagger helped the French seize another sanctioned ship, the Grinch, in the western Mediterranean, shadowing the vessel through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Last week, the French intercepted the Deyna oil tanker in the Mediterranean, supported by the UK.

Libyan authorities have meanwhile towed a suspected shadow fleet oil tanker found drifting in the Mediterranean which was believed to have been hit in a drone strike.

The tanker, carrying liquefied natural gas, was towed to avoid a spill in the Mediterranean.

At the JEF summit, the Prime Minister and other leaders are expected to discuss shared security in the so-called High North and the war in Ukraine.

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Military experts have warned that Iran could soon have the capability to strike European capitals, after it launched long-range missiles at a key UK-US military base thousands of miles away.

Last night, Tehran launched two ballistic missiles towards the strategically important base on Diego Garcia, a jointly owned base in the Chagos Islands 2,360 miles from Iran.

Neither missile hit its target in the attack, which was condemned by the Ministry of defence as ‘reckless’ and a ‘threat to British interests and British allies’.

One is believed to have malfunctioned during flight, while the other was intercepted by an American warship before impact.

The attempted strike suggests advances in range that could eventually bring parts of Europe within reach.

The Daily Mail reported that Iran could have used intermediate range ballistic missiles or a space launch vehicle to boost range.

Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore, told the Daily Mail: ‘Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up and they come down really fast. If you’ve got a space program, you’ve got a ballistic missile program.’

The attack on Diego Garcia happened a week after Israeli forces carried out a strike on Iran’s primary space research facility in Tehran, amid concerns it was being used to develop technology capable of targeting satellites in orbit.

Foreign affairs analyst Nawaf Al-Thani said missile threat is ‘no longer confined to the Gulf, Israel or parts of South Asia’, and key European capitals such as Paris would be in the included range. London is in the ‘edge of vulnerability’.

He said in a post on X: ‘For years, the accepted ceiling was around 2,000 kilometres. A ballistic missile reaching Diego Garcia suggests something in the neighbourhood of 4,000 kilometres, which pushes it out of the medium-range category and into the intermediate-range class (IRBM). That is a strategic leap.

‘If confirmed, Diego Garcia was not just a target. It was a message.’

The strike comes just days after an Iranian missile hit a military base in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to US, UK and Australian troops.

Explosions were heard near the military base, which is used by Western nations as a transit hub within the region.

Meanwhile, Iran has said it will continue to stop shipping traffic from US and allied ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which is used to transport a fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

Brits were encouraged on Friday to work from home and use air fryers instead of ovens to lessen demand for energy.

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Iran fired missiles towards the UK’s Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, US officials have said.

Two intermediate-range ballistic missiles were fired at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands but neither hit, the Wall Street Journal and the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr reported.

One of the missiles was shot down by a US warship, while the other failed in flight, the newspaper said, citing multiple officials.

Ministers gave the US permission to strike Iranian missile sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz from UK bases including Diego Garcia on Friday afternoon.

Iran reacted angrily, with foreign minister Abbas Araghchi claiming it will ‘exercise its right to self-defence’.

Posting on X, he said: ‘Vast majority of the British People do not want any part in the Israel-US war of choice on Iran.

Ignoring his own People, Mr Starmer is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran.

‘Iran will exercise its right to self-defence.’

Where is Diego Garcia military base?

Diego Garcia is around 2,360 miles away from Iran and home to an airbase capable of accommodating long-range US bombers.

The UK has agreed to cede sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius and lease back the base.

Diego Garcia is strategically valuable to the US, and has been used as a launchpad for operations in the Middle East for years.

It has a large airfield, major fuel storage facilities, radar installations and a deep-water port.

UK ‘should have acted a lot faster’

US President Donald Trump said the UK ‘should have acted a lot faster’ in giving the US permission.

He has already piled pressure on Nato allies, calling them ‘cowards’ for refusing to offer warships to reopen the Strait.

The Government had previously granted the US permission only for ‘defensive’ action.

When that decision was made, RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by an Iranian drone.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Sir Keir’s latest move as the ‘mother of all U-turns’ in a post on X.

The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party said granting further permission for the US to use British bases must first have a parliamentary vote.

The Prime Minister will hold a Cobra meeting next week to discuss plans to help households with the cost of living caused by the war, it is understood.

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Sir Keir Starmer has said he appointment of Peter Mandelson was his mistake as he apologised again to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein for the decision.

The crisis over the Prime Minister’s pick for British ambassador to the US erupted again following the release of official documents by the government yesterday.

They show Starmer was already aware of the ‘reputational risk’ of Mandelson’s close links with Epstein when he was chosen for the top diplomatic role.

Speaking in Northern Ireland today, the PM told reporters ‘it was me that made the mistake’ of the appointment, ‘and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein’.

The documents released yesterday also showed that Mandelson, a former government minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, asked for more than £500,000 in severance when he was sacked.

Ultimately, the government gave him a taxpayer-funded sum of £75,000.

Asked today if the ex-ambassador should hand back the money, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘Absolutely, I mean this is a man who has proven to be a traitor to his country.

‘He’s proven to be a traitor to many of his former colleagues, although that’s of less importance.

‘He’s someone that should never have been considered or appointed as ambassador, and he should do the right thing and return the money that he got as a payment.’

Sarwar described Starmer’s decision to appoint Mandelson as a ‘catastrophic error’.

Following further revelations about Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein earlier this year, he publicly called on the PM to step down.

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You’d be forgiven for thinking that today’s Gorton and Denton by-election in Manchester is a potentially earth-shattering, epochal, life-or-death moment for Sir Keir Starmer.

Especially if you’ve been going a little heavy on the political journalism.

Yes, we reporters do like to overegg these things. In the end, last year’s Reform by-election victory over Labour in Runcorn and Helsby told us one thing: people in Runcorn and Helsby liked Reform a bit more than Labour at that point in time.

So is anything different about this one?

I’m going to be iconoclastic here and say probably not, in the long run. They might increase pressure, but no Prime Minister has ever resigned due to a local by-election result because that would be bananas.

However – and it’s a big ‘however’ – that doesn’t mean the vote in Gorton and Denton will tell us nothing interesting.

Far from it. It’s a valuable glimpse at how Labour is performing in the sorts of places the party won easily a little over 18 months ago… and even before polling stations open, it doesn’t look great.

Surveys conducted in the constituency since the by-election was announced have indicated it’s going to be extraordinarily tight, with both Reform and the Green Party sitting roughly equal with Labour.

Keep in mind what happened in Runcorn & Helsby last May, when Sarah Pochin won by just six votes.

With two Labour alternatives from very different parts of the political spectrum available this time, it’ll be fascinating to see what calculations voters make.

Who are the main characters?

In the red corner, we have Labour’s Angeliki Stogia. Of course, that almost wasn’t the case – if Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham had his way last month, he’d have been his party’s candidate.

Instead, he’s channelled his popularity into full-throated support for Stogia, who’s currently a city councillor for a ward slightly closer to the centre than Gorton and Denton.

If she wins, it’ll be a big relief to Keir Starmer, who personally campaigned for her on Monday. Though of course, the margin of victory would give us plenty to talk about.

In the green corner, it’s Hannah Spencer for, uh, the Green Party. If you know one thing about her, it’s that she is a plumber – a job she says she’s done since leaving school at 16.

Party leader Zack Polanski has joked that the Houses of Parliament could benefit from a plumber due to their ‘leaky roofs’, and her Instagram handle is @hannahtheplumbermcr. But we also learned in a video this week that she can speak Urdu (a bit).

If she wins, it might be the worst-case scenario for Labour. It would demonstrate they can be just as vulnerable to populism on the left as populism on the right and blow apart their narrative that Labour is the only party that can beat Reform.

In the teal corner, we have Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin. He’s a bit of a celeb on the right-wing, with his own GB News show and a popular Substack.

He is from the local area and has made much of the fact he used to deliver pizzas in the constituency. But despite that, he’s decided to frame the by-election as a referendum on whether people like Keir Starmer.

If he wins, there might be a silver lining for the government – they could, at least, argue that the Green Party split the vote and handed Reform another MP.

That line could come in handy for the future.

What are the latest odds for the Gorton and Denton by-election?

On Thursday, one of the most unpredictable by-elections in years concludes. The Gorton & Denton by-election has been fiercely contested with the Green party and Reform leading the way according to the bookies.

Oddschecker says the Greens continue to be the odds-on favourites at 4/6 while Reform is priced at 5/2 to win the Greater Manchester constituency.

Oddschecker spokesman Chris Rogers stated, ‘A back-and-forth betting battle has ensued in the build-up to the Gorton & Denton by-election.

‘With just a day to go until it’s conclusion, there is nothing to split the Green party and Reform in the betting split. Green received 38% of bets placed over the last 12 hours while Reform was a fraction behind with 37%.

‘Hannah Spencer and Green continue to be the shortest priced party at 4/6 while Reform are being backed at 5/2. Labour (4/1) remains in contention for the constituency they have held since 1935.’

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