A proposal by Sir Keir Starmer to give the US advance permission to use British bases against Iran was blocked in a cabinet revolt led by Ed Miliband, according to reports.
The former Labour leader’s pushback against the prime minister’s plan came at a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on Friday, the day before the long-anticipated Israel-US campaign against the Islamic Republic was launched.
Starmer had proposed giving America pre-emptive permission to use British bases in the event Iran retaliated, according to The Spectator.
But several senior ministers pushed back, arguing Britain should wait until Tehran had launched retaliatory attacks before authorising the use of British facilities.
Security sources quoted by Shipman were critical of Miliband’s approach.
One described the energy secretary as taking a “petulant, pacifist, legalistic and very political” line during the meeting, questioning why the UK should support the US position.
“He fundamentally doesn’t like Trump, and he doesn’t like this Iran thing,” the source said.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper and justice secretary Shabana Mahmood also reportedly opposed the prime minister’s request.
According to one account of the NSC discussion, Reeves and Miliband “made it quite difficult for the Prime Minister”.
The debate reportedly centred not only on legal considerations but also on the political optics of appearing closely aligned with Washington, particularly after Labour’s by-election defeat to the Greens in Gorton and Denton last week.
In 2013, Miliband as then leader of the opposition led a parliamentary rebellion that blocked Britain intervening in Syria to stop the ruling regime’s murderous campaign in a civil war.
On Saturday, after US and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran, Washington formally requested permission to use UK bases for defensive missions targeting Iranian missile sites.
Iran quickly responded to the air strikes with missiles not only targeting Israel but also directed at many states across the Gulf and Middle East not involved in the campaign.
On Sunday, a drone struck an RAF base on Cyrus and the same day the NSC approved the request, allowing US aircraft to operate from two bases.
Downing Street denied reports that the prime minister had been willing to allow the US to use the bases for pre-emptive strikes but then changed his mind after opposition from cabinet members.
Starmer is understood to have already ruled out allowing US forces to launch offensive operations from British territory last month.
At the NSC meeting on Friday he was instead seeking agreement in principle for the use of UK bases in the event of Iranian retaliation, it is claimed.
The prime minister was backed by the defence secretary, John Healey, who supported the proposal.
Attorney general Lord Hermer’s advice that British bases could only be used for strictly defensive purposes under international law was central to the discussion. Several senior ministers reportedly argued that granting advance approval to Trump would be premature.
It is also reported that Cooper was hopeful that the nuclear negotiations being conducted with Iran in Oman might still yield a breakthrough.
When the US made its formal request for the use of UK air bases, it was carefully framed around defensive operations. Shipman claims the wording had been shaped to be compatible with the British government’s legal view after advice from the chief of the defence staff, Sir Richard Knighton, to American officials.
A government spokesperson declined to comment on the details of NSC discussions but said the prime minister and foreign secretary had been “key players in the decision-making”, alongside other senior cabinet members.
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