Donald Trump has criticised Keir Starmer again over the UK’s refusal to aid the offensive strikes on Iran, saying the “relationship is obviously not what it was”.

Starmer had issued his strongest rebuke yet of Trump’s action in Iran, saying the UK did not believe in “regime change from the skies” and defended his decision not to allow the use of British bases to conduct the strikes.

But the prime minister said the UK would allow the use of its bases for defensive action to protect allied forces and nations in the Gulf and Middle East who have been hit by a wave of retaliatory strikes after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Speaking to the Sun, Trump compared Starmer’s actions unfavourably with France’s support for the strikes and with the backing of the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte. “He has not been helpful. I never thought I’d see that. I never thought I’d see that from the UK. We love the UK,” he said.

“It’s a different world, actually. It’s just a much different kind of relationship that we’ve had with your country before. It’s very sad to see that the relationship is obviously not what it was.”

Starmer has often been praised previously for his ability to maintain a relationship with the volatile US president but on Monday in the House of Commons, the prime minisiter expressed doubt about the US action in Tehran and its legality.

“We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons. Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis, and a viable thought-through plan,” he said. “That is the principle that I applied to the decisions that I made over the weekend.”

Trump said he wished Starmer “a lot of luck” and said he had a “great relationship” with the people of the UK. He said the UK was also “not such a recognisable country … I mean, you look at what happened over the last period of time and it’s very different.”

He said the UK’s collaboration in offensive action would not make much difference to the US objectives.

“It’s not going to matter, but [Starmer] should have helped … he should have. I mean, France has been great. They’ve all been great. The UK has been much different from others,” he said. “You’ve seen the secretary general of Nato, the great things he said, Mark Rutte, He’s great.

“No, they’ve all been pretty much great other than … we think Keir’s was just very different.”

Trump said Starmer also needed to change course on the Chagos Islands deal – which the US had previously supported – as well as North Sea oil and gas exploration and immigration. “Stop people from coming in from foreign lands who hate you,” he said.

Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Starmer said the UK was deploying planes and allowing the use of bases for defensive purposes because of Iran launching strikes on the UK’s allies in the region in its retaliation.

He said the RAF had intercepted an Iranian drone strike heading for a coalition base in Iraq where UK forces were stationed. Two drones were also fired at the British base in Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri, which Starmer said were launched before Sunday’s night’s statement on the US use of UK bases.

Starmer had not previously expressed explicit opposition to Saturday’s initial wave of US-Israeli attacks on Iran, which killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, and other senior Iranian leaders.

Iran has since launched a wave of retaliatory missile and drone attacks on a range of targets in the Gulf and the Middle East, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain and Oman.

The UK is expected to allow the US to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands to bomb Iran’s “missile cities”, sites where high-speed ballistic missiles, Iran’s most dangerous weapons, are stored and can be launched from.