The Prime Minister has confirmed that the United Kingdom will allow the United States to use British bases for what he described as a specific and limited defensive purpose.
In a televised address, Keir Starmer said the UK was not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and would not join offensive action. However, he confirmed that British jets are already flying defensive missions and that further steps have been taken to protect British lives and regional allies.
“I spoke to you about the situation in the Gulf and explained that the United Kingdom was not involved in the strikes on Iran. That remains the case.”
Starmer said that over the past two days Iran had launched sustained attacks across the region, including strikes on locations where British nationals were present.
“They’ve hit airports and hotels where British citizens are staying. This is clearly a dangerous situation.”
He said there are at least 200,000 British citizens in the region, including residents, families on holiday and those in transit, and urged them to register with the Foreign Office and follow official travel advice.
“Our armed forces, who are located across the region, are also being put at risk by Iran’s actions. Yesterday, Iran hit a military base in Bahrain narrowly missing British personnel.”
While reiterating that the UK would not take part in offensive strikes, the Prime Minister confirmed that Gulf partners had requested additional support and that the United States had asked for permission to use British bases to target missile infrastructure.
“The United States has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose. We have taken the decision to accept this request to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region, killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk, and hitting countries that have not been involved.”
Starmer said the legal basis for the decision was collective self-defence and the protection of British lives, adding that a summary of the government’s legal advice would be published.
He also confirmed that British aircraft are flying as part of coordinated defensive operations and have already intercepted Iranian strikes.
“We are not joining these strikes, but we will continue with our defensive actions in the region.”
In addition, the UK will bring Ukrainian experts together with British specialists to support Gulf partners in countering Iranian drone attacks.
Addressing concerns about escalation, Starmer said the government had learned the lessons of Iraq and would not enter offensive operations.
“We were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran, and we will not join offensive action now.”
He concluded by framing the measures as necessary to protect British nationals and prevent further regional destabilisation.
Another u-turn from weasel Starmer.
He and Labour are cowards – liars – despicable and traitorous morons.
Oh nonsense. Grow up.
Do one – little one 😘
It’s not a U turn, Iran attacked us and UK Allie’s in an unprovoked attack. That now means there is legal justification for us to be involved.
Now given Irans attacks on our Allie’s we should get involved ourselves providing F35’s to strike Iranian launchers.
It’s a u-turn 100%
That is like saying it’s a U turn of I’m crossing the road.. then a car comes along so I change my mind and don’t cross the road.. Iran firing off random missiles has given HMG the legal reason it needed to do what it wanted to do.
Starmer refused to let the US use British bases – now he’s saying and I Quote: “The basis of the decision to accept the US request was the “collective self-defence” of allies and protecting British lives, accusing Iran of pursuing a “scorched-earth strategy”.
That’s a u-turn and he’s only doing because of the backlash he’s received.
No Starmer rightly or wrongly refused to let the US launch a first strike on another nation from Uk sovereign soil. Once that nation then started randomly attacking other nations he has allowed strikes to be carried out.. you may not see the difference but many others including international law do.
J,
Ataboy, Sir Keir, being a barrister you observed the legal niceties for a suitable period, and have now decided on a revised course. Between the BUFFs, BONEs, B-2 Spirit bombers, and potentially B-21s, all we are asking from you Brits is to hold our beers until the mission debriefs. Bye-bye IRGC; shooting fish in a barrel! 🍺🍻😁😉👍
Much as I dislike the Iranian regime, i am not sure you can say their response was unprovoked.
There was no direct provocation.. it would be like us attacking Belgium because France attacked us..
Or us attacking Germany because they attacked Poland? Interesting to see Western Governments siding with America…
They come across as dithering, weak and incompetent, desperate do-gooders trying to do the right thing. Starmer does reflect the views of many Labour MPs though, that the US action is illegal. It could be worse… we could have Zack Polanski as PM!
Pick a lane, government.
Also seeing reports that the UK, France and Germany are considering joint defensive strikes.
Basically it’s the fact Iran is shooting missiles at everyone gives the legal justification for the move…
That makes us a legitimate target, me thinks. An so it spreads.
Cyprus has just been hit
Now we should get stuck in. With our bases the USAF can get heavily involved instead of the USN having to do all the heavy lifting. God knows why the UAE and Qatar and other gulf Allie’s that re being targeted are now carrying out defensive strikes as well.
Nothing concrete yet, but there are growing rumours of an impact.
If they have hit the sovereign bases it’s a NATO article 5 no question.
Israeli channel 14 is reporting that as a suspected plane crash at Akrotiri. Others are calling it a drone strike. While the reports are spase and sketchy, it’;s consistently reported that following an explosion, alarms sounded and at least two Typhoons took off. The Daily Mail online are running it and are tangentially linking it to UK permission to use our bases.
Iran (the IRCG) claims to have hit UK and US linked oil tankers in the Gulf with missiles and they are now ablaze. So it’s possible the incident at Akrotiri was deliberate.
Too late.
The USA will neither forgive nor forget.
Just like they neither forgave nor forgot last time we did this, right? Get a grip, the US is pragmatic if nothing else.
BS, Starmer has been actively running interference against the USA since he got into office – they are seriously pissed off with our Manchurian Candidate
Good, We are still pissed off with the Orange ape mocking our war dead.
You seem to be an expert in BS mate. Coming from the east end where we forced Nazis off the streets in the thirties it sure troubles me that a present one was welcomed with open arms in Washington last week by those who’s fathers and grandfathers if belatedly fought with us against them… once as Churchill said they eventually come around to the right decision. I think we remember that mind. We equally aren’t the pawns of a despicable US self serving regime that cares nothing for us, or shouldn’t be whatever the occasional Quisling might want.
What about the actions of Republicans Abroad who have been stirring up all manner of duplicitous undermining of Britain since the election. Thankfully at least the BBC have cottoned onto their tactics and have greatly restricted their propaganda actions from their programming in the manner we equally stopped RT exploiting us in similar fashion. Difficult to tell the difference tbh between those two now which is a sad reflection on Western Society.
Ok let me illustrate what’s happening. Trump thought by killing the Supreme Leader he could force the Govt to do a Venezuela and come to his terms despite advisers and the FBI warning him that won’t happen. As such he asked Iran for a ceasefire (some say begged either way shows his appeal to the people was a mere sham, he just wants a deal), Iran refused which seems to have shocked the ‘big man’ who thinks he can force everyone to sink to his will. Now the US has been shown to be incapable of defending its bases in the region, personnel have been killed, others seriously wounded and of course the Gulf states are being hit and their defensive missile stocks are hardly unlimited. At least one gulf oil platform has been hit. Meanwhile Britain has been trying to defend the gulf States but obviously there are limits. Now Trump having had his Plan A fail with no Iran capitulation and imposed deal, he is near panicking scared of more US casualties as the US public already show they don’t support the action in polls. Thus he is begging Britain as they fail to be able to defend sufficiently against Iran strikes to let them use their bases to try to hit the missile bases and Britain seeing the desperate state of continuing defending against incomings over time and thus the threat to uk allies and citizens has given permission for the use of its bases accordingly. The US is underplaying the threat is struggling to cope and needs all the help it can get having under estimated the response and over estimating its ability to quell the missile threat. And yet the useful idiots want us to make the same mistake the US is making for its own internal reasoning. Allowing the defensive permissions the US is begging for is thanks to this mess necessary and yes we may even have to help the ‘almighty’ US forces to quieten the launchers now to quote Oliver Hardy try to limit the mess they have got us into.
I think it’s us who should decide if we should forgive or forget that mess that the US Trump regime orchestrated and that might cost us dear just so Trump can try to limit the number of US deaths now and the linked threat of failure to prevent Americans from taking his popularity figures to near undetectable levels as a result. Don’t expect the useful idiots here to agree mind, Trump’s failures will reflect very badly on his best British mate’s chances of political success come next election and that scares them stiff.
There is no reason why we need to get involved unless we or our allies are directly attacked. We cannot afford to get potentually dragged into another Afghanistan or Iraq. We need to spend what little money we have rebuilding our armed forces.