Embattled Starmer says UK's relationship with US still "special" after Trump criticism

Starmer's far-left government said this week it would deploy a warship, as well as helicopters with counter-drone capabilities, to help blunt Iran's retaliatory strikes, and on Thursday he announced he would send four more Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar to provide additional protection.

Britain, like other European countries, is searching for ways to repatriate citizens stranded in the Middle East by a conflict that has shut some of the world's busiest airports.

Starmer said more than 4,000 people had arrived back in the United Kingdom on commercial flights from the UAE, while 140,000 British nationals had registered their presence in the region.

(Writing by Michael Holden, additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Elizabeth Piper, editing by William James)