UK MPs slam JD Vance over his ‘disrespectful’ comments on British forces – London Business News | London Wallet

The US Vice President JD Vance has been called a “clown” by a former MP who was an officer in the British Army and served in Afghanistan.

The “disrespectful” US Vice President described the Anglo-French deployment of peacekeepers as “20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years,” shame on him.

Vance told Fox News during an interview that he is not happy over the idea that other countries will provide security guarantees to Ukraine following a peace deal.

Vance claims the US can provide “way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years” if President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a minerals deal with Washington.

James Cartlidge, the Conservative shadow defence secretary, said, “Britain and France came to their [the US’s] aid, deploying thousands of personnel to Afghanistan, including my own brother and numerous parliamentary colleagues, past and present.

“It’s deeply disrespectful to ignore such service and sacrifice.”

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On Tuesday, Vance said it was “absurdly dishonest” to argue that he had been referring to the UK or France, despite the countries being at the forefront of efforts to provide a non-US peacekeeping force.

“I don’t even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond,” he wrote on X.

“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.”

Starmer’s official spokesperson said, “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.”

The Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told 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, called the US Vide President a “clown” who has never served nor got “his hands dirty.”

Mercer, who served in Afghanistan as an army officer, said: “I read JD Vance’s book, making the mistake of finding him quite interesting. By his own admission he spent his time in the Marines ‘writing articles and taking pictures’.

“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.”