Labour’s John Healey today repeatedly dodged questions on whether Britain supports Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran.
The Defence Secretary refused six times in a TV interview to say if the UK backed the US and Israeli action – or if the Government considered the action to be legal.
Mr Healey declined to give a direct answer despite Mr Trump’s assault on Tehran being endorsed by other Western allies, such as Australia and Canada.
He instead only pointed to how Britain ‘played no part’ in the strikes on Iran and said it was up to America to ‘set out the legal basis of the action that it took’.
The Defence Secretary also dodged on whether the UK had refused the US permission to use British military bases, such as Diego Garcia, to strike Iran.
But Mr Healey said ‘few people would mourn’ Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following his death in the US-Israeli strikes.
He also said Britain shared the ‘primary aim’ that Iran ‘should never have a nuclear weapon’.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who backs the US and Israeli action, lashed out out Mr Healey’s failure to answer questions on Britain’s position.
She posted on X: ‘Britain’s Defence Secretary can’t tell us if our Government supports the strikes on Iran.
‘The Labour Government has already lost all support and all credibility. It now can’t answer simple questions. We are not being governed.’
Defence Secretary John Healey refused six times in a TV interview to say if the UK backed the US and Israeli action – or if the Government considered the action to be legal
Mr Healey instead only pointed to how Britain ‘played no part’ in the strikes on Iran and said it was up to America to ‘set out the legal basis of the action that it took’
Smoke rises in Tehran after the Iranian capital was targeted in US and Israeli attacks
Mr Trump last month revealed he was considering using the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands, or RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire to launch strikes on Iran.
But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is said to have warned Mr Trump that the UK would not allow the use of British facilities for any pre-emptive military action.
It has been reported that Britain’s refusal to allow the US to use its military bases came after a legal opinion, drafted for Sir Keir by Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer, emphasised the primacy of international law.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Mr Healey repeatedly declined to say whether the Government backed the US strikes on Iran or thought they were legal.
‘Britain played no part in the strikes on Iran,’ he said.
‘We share, however, the primary aim of all allies in the region and the US that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon.’
The Defence Secretary later added: ‘It is for the US to set out the legal basis of the action that it took.’
Canadian PM Mark Carney has said his country supports the US in action to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to stop Tehran’s regime from ‘further threatening international peace and security’.
The same view has been echoed by Australia’s PM Anthony Albanese.
Senior Tory MP Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, drew a dividing line with the Government when she said the US and Israel were ‘absolutely’ right to strike Iran.
‘We have to remember that the Iranian regime has been a murderous, barbaric regime sponsoring terror around the world and also threatening our own country,’ she told Sky News.
‘That’s been long-established in terms of threats to the UK. With many of their proxies, they’ve also been funding and fuelling many of the hate marches that we’ve seen across our own country.
‘We should not mourn the loss of the Ayatollah one bit at all, he has been heading up and leading a murderous regime that has murdered tens of thousands of their own civilians and citizens, just for speaking up for their freedom.’
Dame Priti also questioned why the Prime Minister was not more ‘proactive’ in the run-up to the US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
She said: ‘A lot of this has been about why has Keir Starmer not actually worked with our American allies to be much more proactive?
‘On the basis that a lot of intelligence is shared between our two countries, the Americans would easily have shared – and rightly so – details of their plans.
‘Why were some of our bases not used? And was the British Government asked about use of our military bases in the defensive strikes that took place?’
