British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has defended his government against accusations it has responded too slowly to the crisis in the Middle East, as he announced more jets would be sent to the region.
The UK had been preparing for the possibility of conflict for the past eight weeks, with weapons and additional military personnel sent to the Middle East in January, Mr Starmer said on Thursday.
He has faced criticism from US President Donald Trump over the UK’s decision not to get involved in the initial American strikes on Iran, as well as from his political opponents domestically who say he failed to build a larger presence in the Middle East before the conflict began. The US President said Mr Starmer was “no Winston Churchill”.
There was also criticism from Cypriot officials over how Britain has acted to defend the island from drone attacks linked to the war in the Middle East, saying it was forced to call in support from France and Greece.
Mr Starmer rejected these claims on Thursday, as he announced four more British Typhoon fighter jets are being sent to Qatar to join an existing squadron. The deployment in January was carried out in co-ordination with the US, he added.
Two Wildcat helicopters armed with drone-busting missiles will arrive in Cyprus on Friday, Mr Starmer said. HMS Dragon, a type-45 warship, is also being deployed as part of the build-up but is unlikely to arrive in the Mediterranean until next week.
The Prime Minister insisted the special relationship with the US has not been fractured by the disagreement. He said he last spoke to US President Donald Trump on Saturday, and that current UK-US co-operation and intelligence-sharing was evidence of strong relations.
He added: “We’re sharing intelligence on a 24/7 basis in the usual way. That is the special relationship.”
He said it had been a “long-standing” British position to seek a “negotiated settlement with Iran”, which informed his decision not to get involved in the initial strikes ordered by Washington.
Mr Starmer said he chaired a Cobra meeting on Thursday and acknowledged that people across the UK are “worried sick about their family and friends who are caught up in this”. He added: “I want to reassure the British public about the action that we are taking while the region has been plunged into chaos. My focus is providing calm, level-headed leadership in the national interest.”
The first chartered flight to leave Oman since the outbreak of the latest way took off “minutes” before Mr Starmer was due to speak, he said, after it faced delays the preceding day. Around 140,000 people had registered their presence in the Middle East with Britain's Foreign Office, he said, as the government prepares for the largest evacuation operation in its history.
“This is a huge undertaking, one of the biggest operations of its time,” the Prime Minister said. “It will not happen overnight”.
