>British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has just shared a video statement on X.
>He says the UK is going to allow the US to take defensive action from British military bases.
>”Our partners in the Gulf have asked us to do more to defend them… We have British jets in the air as part of coordinated defensive operations… which have already successfully intercepted Iranian strikes,” he says.
>”But the only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source – in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles.”
>He says the US has “requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose”.
>”We have taken the decision to accept this request to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risks and hitting countries that have not been involved,” he adds.
Agreeable_Falcon1044 on
Not much choice now the area is in flames and our troops and assets in Bahrain and Cyprus are being targeted!
Gold_Motor_6985 on
And we trust the US will only use them for defensive purposes?
Alaea on
What bases? Al Udeid in Qatar is shared with the US.
Al Minhad in the UAE? The US already has established airbases there so what difference would it make?
Maybe Akotiri and Diego Garcia, but they’re miles out to be of any use now the assets are already there except maybe flying U2s out of Akotiri for scouting launch sites.
The-Peel on
“We’re with you whatever” – ~~Tony Blair~~ Keir Starmer
AbbreviationsHot7662 on
Trump caused all this. It’s all on that fat prick and all those Yankee imbeciles that voted for him, twice.
FelisCantabrigiensis on
Great, now we’re getting sucked into Gulf War 3.
Trump and Bibi made this mess, Trump and Bibi should be left to handle it, using their own resources.
Avorius on
“defensive action”
so is that just using the bases to intercept incoming missiles and drones then?
Appropriate-Gap6817 on
Nothing defensive about bombing the shit out of a sovereign nation
spiderham42 on
Defensive action? They are the aggressor. We should not be getting caught up in helping to defend and illegal action. The spin is just ridiculous.
MancyMancy on
So Labour’s plan to not lose everything to the Greens is join another forever war? Bold strategy.
LauraPhilps7654 on
The US has a rather broad interpretation of “defensive action”.
somedegree123 on
Defensive attacks? What kind of double speak is this? Labour dragging us in to a US war yet again
KoffieCreamer on
Starmer just cannot do a thing right can he? Let’s get sucked into a war that Trump has caused and assist with the Epstein file distraction.
Bravo Starmer.
Safe-Tiger-9518 on
Not sure why anyone would oppose the shooting down of missiles heading for innocent civilians in the Gulf.
That being said, how the UK can ensure the US doesn’t use their bases for offensive operations, I do not know.
Krakshotz on
Let me guess, Trump’s now promised to greenlight the Chagos Deal… again
zestinglemon on
This is actual fucking bullshit. Yet another U-turn and it’s over something we have no reason to be involved in. Trump won’t even care, he’ll forget we even helped in a week and we’ll be tariffed for something or other again at some point in the next few months.
Also laughable Starmer says it is for defensive reasons when America started the conflict. Helping their defence is helping their offensive invasion. We should have just stuck to how things were earlier today.
cagemeplenty on
Sick of being the yanks Puppet.
Let them deal with their own mess for once.
Ok_Bat_686 on
Have any of our bases been targeted yet? If they’re being used as a station for US war activities, that would make them a valid military target and they’d be more likely to get attacked.
LostInTheVoid_ on
There’s absolutely been a shift in the last 12ish hours by several nations. France is actively now sending a CSG to the Med after apparently one of it’s bases were targeted. As it stands the language* being used by UK, France and Germany is that of defensive* actions. But clearly the attacks on nations not directly involved in the initial operations has caused European military commanders and Governments to shift tact slightly.
R9182 on
Defensive action which involves offensively targeting missile sites. You couldn’t make this shit up. Starmer is a fucking clown.
PaulM1c3 on
The US doesn’t need NATO. Trump said so, so why help?
diycd on
‘defensive actions’ is pretty much the playground bully who holds the victims arms behind his back while the other playground bully whales on him.
BroodLord1962 on
Starmer is a prick. We should not getting involved in this at all. All this action against Iran will do is lead to more terror attacks on the UK
investtill on
Make sure we get our cut from their resources once the new administration is in, we’re just modern pirates.
Lexiosity on
By the way, why was this not up to us Brits? Why did we not get a choice in the matter?
InitiativeOver7314 on
Bit by bit we get dragged into yet another illegal war.
Astriania on
Oh now this is bad, bad idea. Nothing the US is doing in this war is defensive, so this is actually saying that we are allowing the US to use our bases to attack Iran. Attacking Iranian launchers inside Iran is not a “defensive” action when the US and Israel started the war.
This makes UK forces a legitimate target, I’m not sure I can describe how much I don’t support this.
Different_Lychee_409 on
Very disappointed wirh this. I want absolutely nothing to do with this war. Starmer has lost any small chance he had of getting my vote in the next general election.
Bubbly_Leave2550 on
Ok great. So the people in favour hate him for not doing it from the beginning. The people against hate him for caving. It is *remarkable* how bad this man is at politics. Dude your WHOLE THING was sucking up to Trump while saying to us you were playing both sides. This is how you throw it away? Generational bid for worst PM after some real corkers. No one think Farage can actually fix anything but Jesus Christ, you are gonna give him a chance.
sockmeistergeneral on
I wish this guy wouldn’t stick to his scruples for at least 5 fucking minutes before U-turning.
InfiniteTallgeese on
I like that we took a principled stand not to be involved for less than a full weekend before getting involved.
PJBuzz on
How do you determine defensive and offensive operations in a base that’s likely to be used for the staging of one of the other and the party isn’t going to share their specific plans?
Absolute bullshit.
If this includes foreign UK bases then we are months (maybe weeks) away from a UK base being struck by an attack and getting dragged into the war.
Cowards.
colin_staples on
I remember when Thatcher let Reagan do this in the 80s
I also remember the Spitting Image sketch where she was portrayed as an obedient dog for doing so
“Sit, stay, fetch, roll over, let me use your airbases”
Kind_Dream_610 on
“defensive action”? Starmer’s a fucking idiot. A bully who starts a fight can’t then decide he’s defending himself from the repercussions. Don’t drag the UK into another war just to help a thug distract from his criminal activities.
Latter-Corner8977 on
Will they fucking bollocks use it for defensive action. If there’s one thing you can trust the Americans with, its pissing all over any agreement you had with them.
Don’t you go pulling us into this war Keir. For fuck sake.
TomTomXD1234 on
Defensive action while being the attacker. Amazing
HollowCrown on
Ah, British sovereignty at its best and at the beckoning call of it masters
tr0028 on
That rules explains why offensive strikes are now being spelled “pre-emptive defensive strikes”
Impeachcordial on
What is defensive about attacking another country, exactly?
White_Immigrant on
And now Starmer is making us a legitimate target. What a prick.
MinimumSilver5814 on
Wow. He’s actually spineless in every single thing he does.
Colascape on
Outrageous, these fuckers and pedos were threatening to invade Greenland a few months ago no? This must not be allowed to happen
the_beer_truck on
Pathetic. I was happy with our handling of this, but he’s just u-turned on this as well.
Due-Adhesiveness-744 on
Here I, a critic of Starmer, have been praising him for having a backbone, and not letting the US use us a puppet for their war crimes.
We have no business in the Middle East. No one wants us to be there (except Trump’s fleshlight: Farage).
Can Starmer not help but bend the knee to the wrong people? I guess for the first time in my lfie, Green will be getting my vote. I voted this man, to get rid of Conservative/Reform/MAGA ideology. He just appeases it. What an absolute useless POS PM.
Most competent we’ve had in 15 years? I’d say so. But that bar is so low, I’d struggle to trip on it.
Ploobul on
This is just another step towards us getting dragged further into this utter bullshit situation, fuck america
Sandy_Bananas on
Can we fucking not, please.
Come on. Strong evidence to suggest that America has long been running a nonce-Ponzi scheme. We’re likely no better, but can we move closer to an economy that isn’t based on child rape, blackmail and bribery.
No sane person should have anything to do with the states.
Anonymous-Cows on
And just like that, I will not vote Labour again.
I thought Starmer did not too bad until now. The hill he chose to politically die on.
nerdylernin on
Defensively bombing the crap out of anyone they want…
49 Comments
>British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has just shared a video statement on X.
>He says the UK is going to allow the US to take defensive action from British military bases.
>”Our partners in the Gulf have asked us to do more to defend them… We have British jets in the air as part of coordinated defensive operations… which have already successfully intercepted Iranian strikes,” he says.
>”But the only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source – in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles.”
>He says the US has “requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose”.
>”We have taken the decision to accept this request to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risks and hitting countries that have not been involved,” he adds.
Not much choice now the area is in flames and our troops and assets in Bahrain and Cyprus are being targeted!
And we trust the US will only use them for defensive purposes?
What bases? Al Udeid in Qatar is shared with the US.
Al Minhad in the UAE? The US already has established airbases there so what difference would it make?
Maybe Akotiri and Diego Garcia, but they’re miles out to be of any use now the assets are already there except maybe flying U2s out of Akotiri for scouting launch sites.
“We’re with you whatever” – ~~Tony Blair~~ Keir Starmer
Trump caused all this. It’s all on that fat prick and all those Yankee imbeciles that voted for him, twice.
Great, now we’re getting sucked into Gulf War 3.
Trump and Bibi made this mess, Trump and Bibi should be left to handle it, using their own resources.
“defensive action”
so is that just using the bases to intercept incoming missiles and drones then?
Nothing defensive about bombing the shit out of a sovereign nation
Defensive action? They are the aggressor. We should not be getting caught up in helping to defend and illegal action. The spin is just ridiculous.
So Labour’s plan to not lose everything to the Greens is join another forever war? Bold strategy.
The US has a rather broad interpretation of “defensive action”.
Defensive attacks? What kind of double speak is this? Labour dragging us in to a US war yet again
Starmer just cannot do a thing right can he? Let’s get sucked into a war that Trump has caused and assist with the Epstein file distraction.
Bravo Starmer.
Not sure why anyone would oppose the shooting down of missiles heading for innocent civilians in the Gulf.
That being said, how the UK can ensure the US doesn’t use their bases for offensive operations, I do not know.
Let me guess, Trump’s now promised to greenlight the Chagos Deal… again
This is actual fucking bullshit. Yet another U-turn and it’s over something we have no reason to be involved in. Trump won’t even care, he’ll forget we even helped in a week and we’ll be tariffed for something or other again at some point in the next few months.
Also laughable Starmer says it is for defensive reasons when America started the conflict. Helping their defence is helping their offensive invasion. We should have just stuck to how things were earlier today.
Sick of being the yanks Puppet.
Let them deal with their own mess for once.
Have any of our bases been targeted yet? If they’re being used as a station for US war activities, that would make them a valid military target and they’d be more likely to get attacked.
There’s absolutely been a shift in the last 12ish hours by several nations. France is actively now sending a CSG to the Med after apparently one of it’s bases were targeted. As it stands the language* being used by UK, France and Germany is that of defensive* actions. But clearly the attacks on nations not directly involved in the initial operations has caused European military commanders and Governments to shift tact slightly.
Defensive action which involves offensively targeting missile sites. You couldn’t make this shit up. Starmer is a fucking clown.
The US doesn’t need NATO. Trump said so, so why help?
‘defensive actions’ is pretty much the playground bully who holds the victims arms behind his back while the other playground bully whales on him.
Starmer is a prick. We should not getting involved in this at all. All this action against Iran will do is lead to more terror attacks on the UK
Make sure we get our cut from their resources once the new administration is in, we’re just modern pirates.
By the way, why was this not up to us Brits? Why did we not get a choice in the matter?
Bit by bit we get dragged into yet another illegal war.
Oh now this is bad, bad idea. Nothing the US is doing in this war is defensive, so this is actually saying that we are allowing the US to use our bases to attack Iran. Attacking Iranian launchers inside Iran is not a “defensive” action when the US and Israel started the war.
This makes UK forces a legitimate target, I’m not sure I can describe how much I don’t support this.
Very disappointed wirh this. I want absolutely nothing to do with this war. Starmer has lost any small chance he had of getting my vote in the next general election.
Ok great. So the people in favour hate him for not doing it from the beginning. The people against hate him for caving. It is *remarkable* how bad this man is at politics. Dude your WHOLE THING was sucking up to Trump while saying to us you were playing both sides. This is how you throw it away? Generational bid for worst PM after some real corkers. No one think Farage can actually fix anything but Jesus Christ, you are gonna give him a chance.
I wish this guy wouldn’t stick to his scruples for at least 5 fucking minutes before U-turning.
I like that we took a principled stand not to be involved for less than a full weekend before getting involved.
How do you determine defensive and offensive operations in a base that’s likely to be used for the staging of one of the other and the party isn’t going to share their specific plans?
Absolute bullshit.
If this includes foreign UK bases then we are months (maybe weeks) away from a UK base being struck by an attack and getting dragged into the war.
Cowards.
I remember when Thatcher let Reagan do this in the 80s
I also remember the Spitting Image sketch where she was portrayed as an obedient dog for doing so
“Sit, stay, fetch, roll over, let me use your airbases”
“defensive action”? Starmer’s a fucking idiot. A bully who starts a fight can’t then decide he’s defending himself from the repercussions. Don’t drag the UK into another war just to help a thug distract from his criminal activities.
Will they fucking bollocks use it for defensive action. If there’s one thing you can trust the Americans with, its pissing all over any agreement you had with them.
Don’t you go pulling us into this war Keir. For fuck sake.
Defensive action while being the attacker. Amazing
Ah, British sovereignty at its best and at the beckoning call of it masters
That rules explains why offensive strikes are now being spelled “pre-emptive defensive strikes”
What is defensive about attacking another country, exactly?
And now Starmer is making us a legitimate target. What a prick.
Wow. He’s actually spineless in every single thing he does.
Outrageous, these fuckers and pedos were threatening to invade Greenland a few months ago no? This must not be allowed to happen
Pathetic. I was happy with our handling of this, but he’s just u-turned on this as well.
Here I, a critic of Starmer, have been praising him for having a backbone, and not letting the US use us a puppet for their war crimes.
We have no business in the Middle East. No one wants us to be there (except Trump’s fleshlight: Farage).
Can Starmer not help but bend the knee to the wrong people? I guess for the first time in my lfie, Green will be getting my vote. I voted this man, to get rid of Conservative/Reform/MAGA ideology. He just appeases it. What an absolute useless POS PM.
Most competent we’ve had in 15 years? I’d say so. But that bar is so low, I’d struggle to trip on it.
This is just another step towards us getting dragged further into this utter bullshit situation, fuck america
Can we fucking not, please.
Come on. Strong evidence to suggest that America has long been running a nonce-Ponzi scheme. We’re likely no better, but can we move closer to an economy that isn’t based on child rape, blackmail and bribery.
No sane person should have anything to do with the states.
And just like that, I will not vote Labour again.
I thought Starmer did not too bad until now. The hill he chose to politically die on.
Defensively bombing the crap out of anyone they want…