# UK MPs condemn ‘deeply disrespectful’ JD Vance comments

## UK MPs condemn ‘deeply disrespectful’ JD Vance comments

US vice-president’s comments on proposed Anglo-French deployment to Ukraine prompt outrage

By  and 

*Tue 4 Mar 2025 10.09 EST*  
First published on Tue 4 Mar 2025 07.39 EST





The shadow defence secretary and other MPs have reacted with fury after  appeared to describe a proposed Anglo-French peace deployment to Ukraine as “20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.

It comes after Downing Street said Keir Starmer had spoken to Donald Trump on Monday night, part of continued UK efforts to try to patch up a .

During an interview with the Fox News channel’s Hannity, Vance, the increasingly outspoken US vice-president, was scathing about the idea of other countries being able to give meaningful security guarantees after any peace deal.

“,” he . “But let’s be direct: there are many countries who are volunteering (privately or publicly) support who have neither the battlefield experience nor the military equipment to do anything meaningful.”

The former foreign secretary James Cleverly condemned what he called Vance’s “foolish and insulting, throwaway remark” given the support allies including the UK and France had provided after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

The Conservative MP told Times Radio: “I understand that he has explained his position, but I think it was a hurtful and thoughtless remark.”

Asked about Vance’s initial comments, Starmer’s official spokesperson did not directly address them but reiterated the fact that UK forces had fought recently alongside their American counterparts.

“The prime minister, and I think this whole country, is full of admiration for all British troops who have served, for instance, in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom have lost their lives in the process, and have fought alongside allies, including the United States,” he said.

The spokesperson said the prime minister had spoken to Trump twice over the weekend and again on Monday night.

In contrast to Cartlidge, Kemi Badenoch declined to condemn Vance’s remarks. “I know JD Vance quite well,” the Conservative leader told GB News. “I’ve looked at the comments; I don’t think he actually said that. A lot of people are getting carried away.”

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, who is close to Trump and Vance, was trenchant in his response, telling GB News: “JD Vance is wrong – wrong, wrong, wrong.” He added: “For 20 years in Afghanistan, pro rata our size against America’s, we spent the same amount of money; we put the same number of men and women in. We suffered the same losses.”

Johnny Mercer, the Conservative former armed forces minister, who is no longer an MP,  a “clown”.

Mercer, who served in Afghanistan as an army officer, said: “Perhaps if he had got his hands dirty serving his country like so many of his fellow American and British veterans, chasing his own country’s crazy foreign policy ideas, he might not be so quick to dismiss their sacrifice.”

The Liberal Democrats said Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador to Washington, should seek an apology from Vance. The party’s defence spokesperson, Helen Maguire, who served in Iraq as a military police officer, said: “I saw first-hand how American and British soldiers fought bravely together shoulder to shoulder. Six of my own regiment, the Royal , didn’t return home from Iraq. This is a sinister attempt to deny that reality.”
```