Starmer speaking at the end of his trip to the Gulf. Make up your own minds as to whether it was worth it…
“Well, the overarching impression here is the importance – as they see it – us standing with them as an ally, as a friend of theirs at a point of need. And there’s been reflection on the work we’ve done with them over the last six to seven weeks on collective self-defence. Here in Qatar, we’ve got a joint squadron. So, a real sense of here we are as an ally standing with our allies when it matters most to them. Obviously the discussion moved very quickly to the ceasefire. A sense that it’s fragile, that more work is needed, that the Strait of Hormuz has to be part of the solution, a very strong sense that can’t be tolling or restrictions on that navigation. And so we come away from here with a real desire on their part to work more closely with us on defence resilience, on economic resilience. That’s really important to us because this is impacting us back at home on our economy.”
Good to know there’s a “sense” that the Strait of Hormuz is important…
Starmer added that the UK has been “pulling together a coalition of countries, now over 30 countries, working on a political and diplomatic plan, but also looking at military capabilities and actually the logistics of moving vessels through these straits.” The proof will be in the pudding…
Starmer said to Robert Peston this afternoon:
“I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy businesses bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world.”