Asked again and again, with no answer. Look at the glum faces on the frontbench…
Adding it was “terrible” of the UK not to back the US in Iran…
No commitment to send warships to the Strait…
UPDATE: Starmer says the UK “will not be drawn into the wider war” in the Middle East, and the government is ‘working on a viable plan’ to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. No commitment on warships to do that.
He confirms a £53 million support package for “those households that are most exposed” to rising heating oil prices.
Gulf allies are unimpressed with Starmer’s plodding response to the Iran war, particularly with the failure to send necessary defensive resources to the region in the opening days of the conflict. The quotes from diplomatic and military sources speaking to Politico:
“No. 10 was determined to downplay any risk or perception of us getting involved and now the government is playing catch-up. And that means we are showing up late.”
A Gulf diplomat said there were “a lot of phone calls”, but very little “serious support.”
“We have the Prime Minister and defence secretary talking about ‘preparing the nation for war’ on a running basis, which is ironic, as we and our allies ended up not deploying deterrent force and taking a week to deploy a major warship to defend Cyprus in good time to show our strong defensive intentions.”
HMS Middleton, Britain’s only mine-hunting vessel, was withdrawn from the Middle East at the start of March – just before the US and Israeli strikes began. Starmer’s dithering is torching the UK’s alliances at record speed…
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”