Did U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer threaten to close U.S. bases at Lakenheath, Mildenhall and elsewhere, and demand rent if President Donald Trump withdraws from NATO? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Starmer made such a threat. Neither news reports nor Starmer's X account support the claim.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Threads on March 19, 2026. It read:
So the UK 🇬🇧 just gave Trump and the US 🇺🇸 48 hours to get the f out of Britain!! Damn!
Accompanying the post was an alleged screenshot showing:
As Prime Minister, I will always be clear with our allies & our critics alike.
If the United States chooses to walk away from NATO, that is a decision for the United States. Britain will remain. Europe will remain. Our collective defence will remain.
But there is a simple point of principle. If you are no longer prepared to stand with your allies, you do not get to park your forces on their soil for free.
So if President Trump intends to end America's commitment to NATO, I would expect the rapid withdrawal of US forces from British bases within 48 hours, in an orderly fashion, agreed with the Ministry of Defence & our local communities.
And since the United States has benefited from decades of access to RAF [Royal Air Force] Lakenheath, Mildenhall & ten other facilities on British soil without paying a penny in ground rent, my government would also expect a full and final settlement of historic rent by the end of the week, on commercial terms.
That is what sovereignty looks like. You do not get to lecture Europe about 'burden sharing' while flying your aircraft from our countryside rent-free.
Britain will always value the Atlantic alliance. But we will not be taken for granted by any president of the United States - past, present or future.
This is what the post looked like on Threads at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by chairperson_mkhize on Threads.)
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) and did not find any matching reports for March 2026. Such a threat from Starmer would have been widely reported.
Also, an advanced search (archived here) of Starmer's X account found no results for a post starting with the same words as the fake post: "As Prime Minister, I will always be clear."
