PM says UK ‘will reply with energy’ on Iran affect after changing into ‘fed up’ with Trump
Keir Starmer said the UK will “respond with strength” to the Iran war impact after saying he’s “fed up” with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s actions impacting energy bills
Keir Starmer said the UK ‘will respond with strength’ in the face of the Iran conflict
Keir Starmer has said the UK will “respond with strength” to the impact of the Iran war on energy bills for Brits at home.
It comes as the PM last night said he’s “fed up” with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s actions pushing up household bills in the UK. The Prime Minister drew a direct comparison between the US President’s war with Iran and the Kremlin tyrant as he said Britain needed to have “more energy independence” to protect consumers from shocks to global markets
Speaking as he prepared to leave Qatar on Friday, Mr Starmer said he leaves the Gulf with a desire to work together on “economic resilience” amid the impact of the conflict on bills in the UK.
He said: “We come away from here with a real desire on their part to work more closely with us on defence resilience, on economic resilience. That’s really important to us, because this is impacting us back at home, on our economy. So it’s very important we do that together.
“It’s a big opportunity as well for the United Kingdom. So it has been important that we’ve been here, and there’s a sense here, as there is, I think, in the United Kingdom, that this conflict is going to define us for a generation, and we must respond, and we will respond with strength.”
READ MORE: Iran war live: Attacks leave Trump’s ceasefire in peril as crucial talks near
Mr Starmer said he told Mr Trump about the Gulf states’ “very strong views on the Strait of Hormuz” in a phone call last night. Tehran effectively blockaded the vital shipping route, which transports around a fifth of the world’s oil. A US-Iran ceasefire attempting to reopen the Strait has faced cracks since being agreed earlier this week.
The Prime Minister told broadcasters: “I had a discussion with President Trump last night and set out to him the views of the region here, these Gulf states are the neighbours of Iran, and therefore, if the ceasefire is to hold – and we hope it will- it has to involve them.“They have very strong views on the Strait of Hormuz. We spent most of the time on the call talking about the practical plan that’s going to be needed to get navigation through the strait and the role that the UK is playing.”The UK has been working to bring together a coalition of countries to come up with a plan to get shipping moving through the vital route for global oil and gas supplies, which Iran has effectively shut down. That included political and diplomatic efforts but also “looking at military capabilities” and the logistics of actually moving vessels through the strait.
On Thursday, Mr Starmer also made his most critical comments of the US President yet. He told ITV: “I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world and saying to families across the country, saying to businesses across the country, ‘We’ve just got to put up with being on the international market’.”
The PM spoke to the US President from Qatar on Thursday night about the need for a “practical plan” to get shipping going through the Strait of Hormuz. The call came shortly after he criticised Mr Trump for the fallout of the Middle East crisis.
On Friday, Defence Minister Luke Pollard batted away reports that the US has warned Britain it could be punished for disappointing Mr Trump during the conflict in Iran. Mr Trump reportedly plans to punish and reward NATO members – with one option is said to include pulling American troops out of nations deemed to be less supportive, according to The Times.
The US President has repeatedly criticised the defensive alliance and last month lashed out at NATO for doing “absolutely nothing” to help the US in his conflict.
Asked about the reports on Friday morning, Mr Pollard told Times Radio: “That’s not an activity that we recognise. We’ve been very clear that the war in Iran is not our war, but we have stepped up in support of defending our allies from the reckless Iranian attacks on, not only British and coalition bases, but also our allies in the Gulf.
“And indeed, the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte, said yesterday that he praised the work of Keir Starmer and the UK in bringing together allies in support of opening the Strait of Hormuz to allow the flow of energy and ships through that important shipping channel.”
