US considers new ultimatum to UK over Falklands

The US is said to have issued an ultimatum to Andy Burnham, threatening to withdraw its support for Britain’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands if it does not increase defence spending.

Pentagon officials are understood to be reviewing Nato allies’ commitment to their 5 per cent defence spending promise, with the UK set to get “special attention”, a senior US official told The Telegraph.

Donald Trump’s administration believes the UK did not go far enough with its defence investment plan in June and is now looking at ways to incentivise the prime minister to invest further.

“I would expect the UK to receive special attention because it has so much potential,” the US official told the publication. “We will therefore continue efforts to incentivise and enable the UK to step up in a major way.”

They said that changing America’s stance on the UK’s claim to the Falklands, which the US president has previously considered, was a possibility.

“I can say that they [conversations] are candid and nothing is being ruled out as far as options for encouraging the sort of burden-sharing that we seek,” the source said.

The Treasury confirmed on Friday that chancellor John Healey’s first budget will fail to set out when the UK will meet the target of allocating 3 per cent of GDP on defence.

Mr Healey resigned as defence secretary in June, saying former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer had been “unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats”.

America’s recent demand follows a threat in April, in which a leaked internal Pentagon email suggested that the US could review Britain’s claim to the Falklands as revenge for a lack of support in the Iran war.

A shift in the US position on the islands has been considered by the Foreign Office, but has been treated as a “hypothetical scenario”.

Downing Street insisted that the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is “not in question”, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said a potential US policy review was “absolute nonsense” and compared it to the Mr Trump’s previous threat to annex Greenland.

The Independent has approached the White House and Downing Street for comment.