UK and NATO allies 'need to prepare to defend Europe without US'

The UK and its NATO allies in Europe must prepare for a "worst case scenario" of the US not defending them in a crisis, an influential committee of peers and MPs has warned.

Tensions between Donald Trump's administration and Sir Keir Starmer's government could also compromise the reliability of critical pillars of UK national security, including the maintenance of Trident missiles used in the navy's nuclear deterrent submarines, intelligence sharing and access to programmes such as the F-35 jet, it said in a report. The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy urged London to "plan to move away from a bilateral relationship with the United States that is so dependent on the latter for nuclear and intelligence operations, and conventional defence".

Follow latest on Middle East war It also advised the UK, Europe and Canada to develop a plan "for a transition towards greater European leadership of NATO". The intervention, published on Friday, came as President Trump again lambasted his allies - and the UK in particular - for choosing not to join his war against Iran.

He mocked the Royal Navy's two aircraft carriers as "toys.