Prime minister explicitly blames US president for British consumers’ higher bills as he concludes tour of Gulf states
Good morning. Keir Starmer is wrapping up his three-day tour of Gulf states today, and we are starting some conclusions. What we have not got is any sort of plan for a resolution of the Iran war; Starmer is not one of the main protagonists in this conflict, what he has said publicly about his talks with Gulf leaders has consisted largely of platitudes, we still have no idea about when, if or how the strait of Hormuz will fully open, and the outcome will be determined by Iran and a rash and unpredictable US president.
But Starmer has been giving some thought to how the UK should respond to the era of global uncertainty we now find ourselves in and he has set out some of his thinking in an article for the Guardian. The full piece is here.
And here is our story about it, by Peter Walker and Jamie Grierson.
Starmer’s argument is that this crisis shows why the UK needs to be more resilient, in terms of having a robust economy, energy security, a closer economic relationship with Europe and more European defence cooperation. Of course, these were all Labour priorities anyway, but Starmer says the Iran war has highlighted why they are so important. He says this crisis must be a defining moment that results in Britain deciding to “forge a new path”. (But he did, though, say exactly the same thing about the Covid pandemic when he was in opposition.)
