LONDON — British politicians condemned Donald Trump’s assertion that fellow NATO members stayed away from the frontlines during the war in Afghanistan.

In his latest swipe at European allies, the U.S. president told Fox News he wasn’t “sure” the alliance would “be there if we ever needed them.”

And he added: “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 front lines.”

Britain lost 457 troops in Afghanistan, while 165 Canadians died and Denmark lost 44 soldiers, the highest per-head death toll during the two decade war. NATO invoked its Article 5 on collective security for the first and only time in its history after the 9/11 attacks against the U.S.

Health Minister Stephen Kinnock told Sky News Friday Trump’s remarks were “deeply disappointing, there is no other way to say that.” Kinnock said he did not believe “there’s any basis for him to make those comments.”

The minister added that “anybody who seeks to criticize what they [British troops] have done and the sacrifices that they make is plainly wrong.”

He told the BBC it was “best at this time not to be distracted by comments that simply don’t really bear any resemblance to the reality.”

Backbencher backlash

The remarks cap a difficult week for transatlantic relations, with Trump threatening to impose trade tariffs on Britain over its support for Greenland before retreating, and also attacking London’s deal over the future of the Chagos Islands.

Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, called Trump’s words on Afghanistan “so much more than a mistake,” branding them an “absolute insult” to the bereaved families of victims.

Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey, one of the U.S. president’s fiercest critics, said Trump “avoided military service five times,” and asked “how dare he question their sacrifice?”

MPs who formerly served in Afghanistan also weighed. Labour MP Calvin Bailey, previously a Royal Air Force officer, said the comment “bears no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there.”

Conservative parliamentarian Ben Obese-Jecty, a former British Army captain, said he was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our NATO partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States.”