Prince Harry has lashed out at Donald Trump over his comments on Britain’s war dead, saying that UK soldiers who sacrificed their lives ought to be treated with ‘respect.’

Trump sparked fury around the world after claiming in a Fox News interview that NATO troops, including those from Britain, stayed ‘a little off the front lines’ during the war in Afghanistan.

The Duke of Sussex said following the comments that the ‘sacrifices’ of British soldiers who served and died in Afghanistan ‘deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.’ 

Some 457 British service personnel were killed in the conflict in Afghanistan, fighting alongside the US, and countless more were severely wounded.

But to Trump, this sacrifice appeared to mean very little. In what was branded a cheap shot at his country’s allies he said he was ‘not sure’ the military alliance would be there for America ‘if we ever needed them’.

‘We’ve never needed them … we have never really asked anything of them,’ he told Fox.

‘They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines.’

Trump’s remarks came after a week in which the president clashed with NATO allies, including the UK, over their refusal to agree to his demand that Greenland be brought under US control.   

Prince Harry joins Sir Keir Starmer in the chorus of furious voices that have lashed out at the Republican leader for his remarks. 

Starmer said in Downing Street today: ‘I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling and I am not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country.’

In response to comments from Diane Dernie, mother of severely injured veteran Ben Parkinson, he said: ‘I’ve made my position clear, and what I say to Diane is, if I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologise and I’d apologise to her.’ 

Ms Dernie had earlier said the PM should call out Trump and ‘make a stand’ for Britain.

She said she was ‘stunned as to how anyone could say such a thing’ in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s comments, adding: ‘I can assure you, the Taliban didn’t plant IEDs miles and miles back from the front line.’

Ian Sadler, whose son, Trooper Jack Sadler, 21, was killed in Afghanistan in 2007, added: ‘The British certainly were in the hot spots, they were on the front line, 457 of them were lost and there was probably three times as many seriously injured as deaths.’ 

America is the only NATO member to have invoked the collective security provisions of its Article 5 clause – that an attack against one member is an attack on all.

That came after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001, which led to a US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

The UK suffered the second-highest number of military deaths in the Afghanistan conflict at 457. 

The US saw 2,461 deaths. America’s allies suffered 1,160 deaths during the conflict – around a third of the total coalition deaths. 

Speaking in Davos yesterday, the US President made a similar swipe against the 32-member military alliance, saying: ‘I know them all very well. I’m not sure that they’d be there. I know we’d be there for them. I don’t know that they would be there for us.’ 

Following the speech, NATO chief Rutte corrected the record to the US President, telling him: ‘There’s one thing I heard you say yesterday and today. You were not absolutely sure Europeans would come to the rescue of the US if you will be attacked. Let me tell you, they will, and they did in Afghanistan.’

Rutte’s rebuttal came after Trump called Denmark – which had the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces in Afghanistan – ‘ungrateful’ for US protection during the Second World War.

‘For every two Americans who paid the ultimate price, there was one soldier from another NATO country who did not come back to his family – from the Netherlands, from Denmark, and particularly from other countries,’ the NATO chief said.

‘So you can be assured, absolutely, if ever the United States were under attack, your allies will be with you. There is an absolute guarantee. I really want to tell you that because it pains me if you think it is not,’ Rutte told Trump.