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Sir Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to endorse US and Israeli strikes on Iran, with British ministers refusing to say whether the joint attack was legal as the conflict continued into its second day.
John Healey, UK defence secretary, on Sunday repeatedly refused to support the strikes, while Starmer has taken a much more ambivalent stance than other western allies, including Canada and Australia.
Dame Priti Patel, the Conservative’s shadow foreign secretary, who was in Washington last week, told the FT that the US administration was already “very, very unhappy” with Britain over its stance over the Diego Garcia base.
Patel said the Tories fully supported the strikes on Iran and Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, urged Starmer to allow the use of British military bases and “support the Americans in this vital fight”.
But while Starmer’s stance risks a rift with the White House, the prime minister is caught in a politically precarious position, with calls from the left for him to openly criticise the US-Israel attacks.
Labour suffered a by-election defeat to the Green Party this week in Gorton and Denton, a contest in which the Greens argued that Starmer had taken a soft approach to Israel over Gaza.
Zack Polanski, Green Party leader, said on Sunday: “This is an illegal, unprovoked and brutal attack that shows once again that the US and Israel are rogue states.”
Dame Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said on X: “I am pleased to see the UK is not involved in these strikes on Iran. They are ill-advised and illegal.”
Starmer has refused to allow US bombers to hit Iran from the UK-US Indian Ocean base in Diego Garcia after Lord Richard Hermer, UK attorney-general, warned that the attack is illegal under international law, British officials said.
The prime minister, a lawyer by training, said on Saturday that Britain’s military operations in the Middle East were about defending UK interests and allies, and were being conducted “within international law”.
Healey was asked repeatedly by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg whether the US strikes were legal and whether he backed them, but declined to give a direct answer.
“Britain played no part in the strikes on Iran. We share, however, the primary aim of all allies in the region and the US that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon.”
Healey added that “few people will mourn” the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying he committed atrocities against his own people and sponsored terror around the world.
The leaders of Canada and Australia have, by contrast, given their support to the US attack.
Lord Peter Ricketts, former head of the UK Foreign Office, said Starmer was in the uncomfortable position of “trying to steer between two rocks”, attempting to uphold international law while not further antagonising Donald Trump.
“If you’re going to attack a country you have to show it is in self-defence and that there is some kind of imminent threat. You can’t make that case here.” Ricketts told the FT: “An indifference to international law is dangerous.”
The UK has bases, military personnel and tens of thousands of civilians in the region.
Healey has said that British aircraft and radar had been deployed to “defend our people, defend our bases and defend our allies”, but the UK has so far suggested that Tehran is not deliberately targeting its facilities.
“This regime is lashing out,” Healey said. “It’s lashing out in an increasingly indiscriminate and widespread way, and people will be really concerned that it’s not just military targets, but civilian airports like Kuwait.”
Western officials said that British troops at a US base in Bahrain were within 200 metres of an Iranian missile and drone strike. About 300 personnel are based there. British forces in Iraq were within 400 metres of an Iranian missile strike.
Meanwhile, the UK defence ministry said two Iranian missiles were fired in the direction of Cyprus, but that it did not assess they were actually targeted on the island, where Britain operates military bases.
A Republic of Cyprus government spokesperson on Sunday said: “There is no indication whatsoever that any threat to the country has occurred.”
On Saturday afternoon, a British counter-drone unit in Iraq took out an Iranian drone that was heading towards a base housing UK service personnel.
Starmer has tried to co-ordinate his response with France and Germany as part of the so-called E3, which has tried to push a negotiated settlement with Iran over its nuclear programme.
The E3 said: “We condemn Iranian attacks on countries in the region in the strongest terms. Iran must refrain from indiscriminate military strikes. We urge the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution. Ultimately, the Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future.”