The week that ruined Britain’s reputation on the world stage

It was at 10.52am on Monday that the war in Iran stopped being an operational headache for Sir Keir Starmer and erupted into a full-blown political crisis.

As the Prime Minister and his aides hunkered in No 10, busily preparing for a Commons statement, The Telegraph published an exclusive interview with Donald Trump that would upend 18 months of painstaking diplomacy.

The US president did not hold back as he tore into the Labour leader over his refusal to support the joint American and Israeli strikes on Tehran.

In a brutal dressing-down, Mr Trump said he was “very disappointed” in Sir Keir, warning that he had cast doubt over the future of the special relationship.

His remarks were dismissed by some as a typical Trumpian outburst. In reality, they were the first public expression of growing anger among many of Britain’s traditional allies over its response to the unfolding crisis in the Middle East.

The row had begun three weeks earlier when US officials first contacted Downing Street about the possibility of using UK bases for strikes on Iran.

Armed with legal advice from Lord Hermer, his Attorney General, the Prime Minister refused the White House’s requests to deploy bombers from Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands and from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

The advice, which argued that allowing the use of UK bases for pre-emptive air strikes would breach international law, set Britain on a collision course with its closest allies in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Enraged by the snub, Mr Trump piled pressure on Sir Keir to change course in a series of angry phone calls. At the same time, the president continued to plan a major military campaign from which Britain was now completely excluded.

British officials knew the strikes were imminent but were in the dark about exactly when they would happen. Last Friday, believing the strikes were scheduled to start that day, the Prime Minister led the weekly National Security Council (NSC) meeting.

At that gathering, he argued in favour of allowing the US to use UK bases but was forced to back down in the face of a Cabinet revolt led by Ed Miliband and supported by Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper.

It is said that some of those present argued that being seen to have a close relationship with the United States was not in the Labour Party’s electoral interests.

When the air strikes did begin overnight, RAF jets stationed in Cyprus and Qatar were swiftly scrambled to defend any Iranian counter-attacks.

But back in Westminster, the Prime Minister was not so quick to get off the ground. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, and Nigel Farage of Reform UK were both able to fire off their salvos before the nation heard from its leader.

Mrs Badenoch immediately backed the US-Israeli action against the “vile regime”.

Mr Farage swiftly identified that the refusal to allow the use of UK bases would become a major row. “The Prime Minister needs to change his mind,” he said.

Sir Keir would not surface until lunchtime, when in a televised statement from Downing Street, he insisted that “the United Kingdom played no role in these strikes” and would act only “in line with international law”.

The Prime Minister spent the bulk of Saturday morning on a call with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor.

In a joint statement, issued afterwards, the leaders of the “E3” nations conspicuously failed to back the US-Israeli action and instead called for the “resumption of negotiations” with Tehran on ending its nuclear programme.

He would pass the afternoon at No 10 speaking to the leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar and then – more importantly – Mr Trump, who this time submitted a formal request to use UK bases for defensive strikes.

When the NSC met again the following day, it agreed to rubber-stamp the request. But by that point significant damage had been done to the UK’s standing, not only in Washington but in capitals across the world.

Mark Carney and Anthony Albanese, the centre-Left leaders of Canada and Australia, whose success Sir Keir hopes to replicate, had backed the White House.

Meanwhile allies in the Gulf, including the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, were coming under bombardment from indiscriminate Iranian counter-attacks.

The Prime Minister hit the phones again, speaking to the leaders of Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman and Cyprus – the latter being the European country geographically closest to the crisis and the site of a major RAF airfield.

With the situation escalating, the E3 leaders also put their heads together once more.

The statement they issued at 8pm on Sunday laid the groundwork for an imminent Starmer about-turn on the use of British bases.

It said: “We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source.”

Less than an hour later Sir Keir announced the change of heart, buried three and a half minutes into a five-minute video. He insisted his decision not to back the initial strikes was “deliberate” and the UK would “not join offensive action”.

Shortly afterwards the crisis would literally hit home. At about 10pm on Sunday night an Iranian Shahed attack drone, of the type used by Russia to bombard Ukrainian cities, slammed into the runway at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, marking the impact of the conflict on UK sovereign territory for the first time.

The next morning, Mr Trump decided he had held his tongue for long enough. His exclusive interview with The Telegraph ignited Whitehall’s diplomatic networks and plunged Downing Street into crisis mode.

After discussing how to respond with his aides, Sir Keir headed to Parliament where he was scheduled to deliver a statement on Iran. It did not take long for him to make it clear that he had decided to come out fighting.

He derided Mr Trump for not having a “thought-through plan” and then directly rebuked him by telling MPs he did “not believe in regime change from the skies”.

Labour backbenchers lapped up his performance. But at the same time in Berlin, Mr Merz was dismantling his stance.

In an unusually blunt statement, the German chancellor acknowledged appeals to international law would have “relatively little effect” and said, in light of Europe’s military inaction, this was “not the time to lecture our partners and allies”.

Tuesday morning began with Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, insisting Britain would not retaliate over the attack on Akrotiri. Mrs Badenoch expressed incredulity, whilst Mr Farage branded the Government “totally rudderless”.

At a meeting of the Cabinet, Sir Keir told his top team that he was “taking the steps necessary to protect British interests and British lives”. But even as he spoke, he was being mercilessly upstaged by Mr Macron.

The French president was sending a naval strike group including the Charles de Gaulle, Europe’s only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, to defend Cyprus.

It was an acute embarrassment for Britain. UK defence officials had been discussing sending a warship but faced a problem – five of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 air-defence destroyers were out of service for repairs, while the only one on active duty, HMS Duncan, was also scheduled for routine maintenance.

Bombarded by Cypriot fury in private and calls to act from the opposition in public, Sir Keir eventually announced in his own video message at 4.09pm that Britain would rush HMS Dragon out of repairs and send it to the region.

Meanwhile, over at the White House, Mr Trump was not finished taunting the Prime Minister.

First, in a newspaper interview, he said Sir Keir’s actions meant “the relationship is obviously not what it was”. Later, at an Oval Office meeting with Mr Merz, he told reporters, unprompted, that “this is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with”.

The next day Sir Keir had to front up to a brutal Prime Minister’s Questions, at which Mrs Badenoch accused him of “asking our allies to do what we should be doing ourselves” by defending the base in Cyprus.

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, similarly pointed out in the Commons that Britain was dependent on US warships to protect RAF Akrotiri.

“Until the Prime Minister’s U-turn on Sunday he was stopping the US from using our bases whilst relying on them to defend ours,” he told MPs, accusing the Prime Minister of “a dereliction of duty”.

It was also on Wednesday evening that international anger with Britain erupted in public. Kyriacos Kouros, Cyprus’s high commissioner, appeared on television to say his country was “disappointed” in the UK’s lack of support and “expected more”.

Meanwhile bruising reports emerged of simmering anger amongst Middle East allies. Jordan was said to be “f------” furious with Britain’s lack of response, with one ex-minister telling The Spectator the UAE, Kuwait and Canada were all asking “whose side are you on”.

Downing Street responded to Mr Kouros’s criticism by scrambling John Healey, the Defence Secretary, to Cyprus on Thursday. At the same time Sir Keir called a press conference in London at which he urged Mr Trump to negotiate with the Iranians.

In the face of the international criticism the Prime Minister defended his approach and spoke of “having the strength to stand firm by our values and our principles, no matter the pressure to do otherwise”.

Yet his apparent lack of influence was exposed hours later, when Mr Trump revealed how far negotiations were from his mind. Speaking at a White House event for Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer champions, which included Lionel Messi, he told Iranian soldiers to surrender or face “guaranteed death”.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph revealed that HMS Dragon was still undergoing welding work, meaning it was unlikely to reach Cyprus for a fortnight.

That day, Sir Keir spoke to the new Dutch prime minister and the King of Bahrain, reassuring the latter over the deployment of four RAF Typhoon jets to the region.

He continued his round of diplomacy on Friday by joining a call with Mr Macron, Mr Merz and Giorgia Meloni, the Italian premier.

In a statement, Downing Street said the four leaders had agreed that “close military coordination would be vital in the coming hours and days”.

If it were a sign that Sir Keir had finally grasped the seriousness of his earlier missteps, that realisation may have come too late for Britain’s long-standing relationships with its significant allies.

On Friday afternoon, Constantinos Kombos, the Cypriot foreign minister, said the UK’s failure to defend his country had raised “questions” about whether Britain should give up RAF Akrotiri and its sister base, RAF Dhekelia.

Even the suggestion of the loss of the bases, which are critical to the UK’s influence in the region, risks further damaging ties with Washington that have already been strained by the row over the Chagos Islands and the future of Diego Garcia.

As the US-Israeli military operation enters its second week, it may have already claimed a significant and unexpected casualty – Britain’s standing on the world stage.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]