Starmer has allowed the US to use UK bases for ‘defensive operations’. What other actions has Britain taken?
To Donald Trump, the UK’s involvement in the US assault on Iran – letting American bombers use RAF bases for “defensive operations” – amounts to joining the war after “we’ve already won”.
Even so, the first US B-1 Lancer planes began to land at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire at the weekend before joining the bombing campaign. Boeing C17 Globemaster transport planes have also landed at the base.
It’s the latest involvement of British military resources in the conflict after Keir Starmer announced more defensive deployments last week and spoke to Trump on Sunday in an apparent attempt to smooth over the tensions.
The foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC that despite the decision to allow US planes to land at RAF bases for Iranian operations, the government would not be “outsourcing [its] foreign policy” to the US.
