In the interview with Fox News, Trump said: “We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines.”

Calvin Bailey, a Labour MP and former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations units in Afghanistan, said Trump’s claim “bears no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there”.
The Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan as a captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, said it was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our Nato partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States”.

Tan Dhesi, the chair of the Commons defence committee, said the US president’s comments were “appalling and an insult to our brave British servicemen and women, who risked life and limb to help our allies, with many making the ultimate sacrifice”.

The foreign affairs committee chair, Emily Thornberry, described the comments as “so much more than a mistake”, and “an insult” to the families of those who had died.

Trump has previously been criticised for avoiding being conscripted to fight in Vietnam after being diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels – a medical claim that has been subject to significant doubt.