A top Tory MP has questioned whether Donald Trump is a Russian asset after the US president’s controversial decision to suspend military aid to Ukraine sparked a fierce backlash. Mr Trump halted all American military equipment not currently in the war-torn country after lashing out again at Volodymyr Zelensky following the pair’s Oval Office spat.

Mr Trump railed against “the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky” after the Ukrainian president said an end to war with Russia is “very, very far away”. The US president added: “America will not put up with it for much longer!”

The move to suspend military aid seemingly caught Sir Keir Starmer by surprise, with the Prime Minister telling the Commons just hours earlier that he was unaware of any plans by the US.

Former Tory environment secretary Graham Stuart blasted: “We have to consider the possibility that President Trump is a Russian asset.

“If so, Trump’s acquisition is the crowning achievement of Putin’s FSB career – and Europe is on its own.”

Mr Trump’s vice-president JD Vance has also compounded British fury after dismissing Britain as “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.

Ignoring the hundreds of deaths experienced by the British military alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Vance told Fox News: “If you want real security guarantees, if you actually want to make sure Vladimir Putin

“That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”

Tory shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge condemned the comments “deeply disrespectful”, noting that Nato’s Article 5 clause – guaranteeing that an attack on one member of the alliance is an attack on all – has been invoked once by the US following 9/11 and that Britain and France answered the call.

Mr Cartlidge said: “Britain and France came to [US] aid, deploying 1,000s of personnel to Afghanistan, including my own brother and numerous parliamentary colleagues past and present.”

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

Sir Keir and French president Emmanuel Macron have said they want to establish a “coalition of the willing”, with European powers putting boots on the ground in Ukraine to uphold any peace deal.

Meanwhile, referring to Mr Vance, a military source told the Express: “I didn’t see him in the firebase in Helmand, or the start line for Iraq.

“He’s just a gobby REMF,” which is military slang for “rear-echelon motherf*****” – an insult used against soldiers who enjoy easier non-combat jobs away from the front line.

Mr Vance served for four years in the US Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq for six months in 2005 as a military journalist, but did not experience combat.

Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin, a former army officer and member of the Defence Select Committee, also told the Express: “I’ve been under fire with American soldiers in Afghanistan – a war we joined to support them after 9/11.”

He said Mr Vance’s comments about Britain were “deeply offensive”.

Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson Helen Maguire MP, a former Captain in the Royal Military Police who served in Iraq, said: “JD Vance is erasing from history the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“I saw firsthand how American and British soldiers fought bravely together shoulder to shoulder. Six of my own regiment, the Royal Military Police, didn’t return home from Iraq. This is a sinister attempt to deny that reality.

“As the UK’s representative to the US, Peter Mandelson should call on Vance to apologise for these comments.”