The Health Secretary said ministers had learned to draw a distinction between what the US president ‘says and what he does’.
Wes Streeting has criticised Donald Trump’s “incendiary, provocative, outrageous” language amid souring trans-Atlantic ties, and said the failure of US-Iran peace talks was “disappointing”.
Disagreements over the Iran war, Greenland and the Chagos Islands, as well as the US president’s jibes against the UK, had “undoubtedly strained” UK-US relations, the Health Secretary said.
But he said the Government had learned to draw a distinction between what the US president “says and what he does”.
Mr Streeting told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: “Over the course of the last week, President Trump has said some pretty bold – in Yes Minister language – incendiary, provocative, outrageous things on social media.
“I think we’ve all come to learn that you judge President Trump through what he does, not just what he says.”
Mr Trump recently warned Iran that “a whole civilisation will die” if it did not meet his demands, ahead of the two countries agreeing on a ceasefire.
That shaky two-week truce has been thrown into uncertainty after Washington and Iran’s 21-hour negotiations ended without a peace agreement being reached in the early hours of Sunday.
US vice-president JD Vance was in Pakistan for the talks and said Tehran’s refusal to commit to not build a nuclear weapon was the reason for the lack of a deal.
Mr Streeting said it was “obviously disappointing that we haven’t yet seen a breakthrough in negotiations and an end to this war in Iran that is a sustainable one.
“But as ever in diplomacy, you’re failing until you succeed. So while these talks may not have ended in success, that doesn’t mean there isn’t merit in continuing to try.”
He added that the wider impact of the war on the UK and other countries not involved underlined the shared interest in securing a breakthrough and ending the war.
On Mr Trump’s threat to wipe out a civilisation, Mr Streeting said many people would have gone to bed “wondering what on earth would happen overnight, and woke up to a very different picture the next morning”.
“The point I’m making is you have to distinguish between some of the rhetoric, which people might find shocking, and then the reality.”
Britain will host further talks on reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane with a coalition of countries next week.
The meeting will continue the Government’s efforts to restore freedom of navigation in the strait, which provides shipping routes for oil and gas.
It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke to Mr Trump about the need for a “practical plan” to get ships going through the area amid suggestions Iran wants to charge vessels for passage.
