Pippa Crerar, Jennifer Rankin and Lorenzo Tondo – The Guardian March 16, 2026
Keir Starmer has insisted that the UK will not be drawn into the wider war in the Middle East as European leaders ruled out sending warships to the strait of Hormuz.
In his clearest signal yet of the UK’s divergence from Donald Trump’s attack on Iran, the prime minister said he would stand firm in the face of US pressure despite the decision being “difficult, there’s no hiding that”.
As concerns mounted at home over US demands for the British military to help keep shipping lanes open, he said: “While taking the necessary action to defend ourselves and our allies, we will not be drawn into the wider war.”
Despite threats from the US president that Nato faces “a very bad future” if members fail to help reopen the vital waterway, European leaders underlined Washington’s isolation as Germany and Italy said they had no plans to send ships. Australia, France and Japan have taken a similar position.
This drew a further rebuke from Trump, who singled out Starmer’s failure to provide minesweepers to the Middle East, saying it was terrible and that he was not happy with his close ally.
“I was very surprised with the United Kingdom, because two weeks ago, I said, why don’t you send some ships over? And he really didn’t want to do it,” Trump told reporters.
“I said, you don’t want to do it? We’ve been with you. You’re our oldest ally, and we spend a lot of money on, you know, Nato and all of these things to protect you.
“We’re protecting them. We’re working with them on Ukraine. Ukraine’s thousands of miles away, separated by a vast ocean. We don’t have to do that, but we did it.”
Starmer told a Downing Street press conferenceon Monday he was “looking through the options” after Trump asked for help in a phone call on Sunday night to keep the strait of Hormuz open and unblock global oil supplies from the region.
Ministers are drawing up plans to send aerial minesweeping drones to help clear the strait amid concerns in Whitehall that complying with Trump’s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis.
Britain’s last minesweeping ship in the region, HMS Middleton, left Bahrain for maintenance days before the war began, a move now at the centre of a government row over whether the UK did enough to prepare for the conflict.
Iran’s announcement that it would target ships using the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply normally passes, has sent oil prices soaring from about $65 (£49) a barrel to more than $100, and economists predict higher inflation and lower growth this year as a result.
The situation has put further pressure on the relationship between Starmer and Trump, which has been damaged by the prime minister’s refusal to allow the president to use British bases to launch his initial attack on Tehran.
Starmer said his decision not to join the initial US offensive had been a matter of “principles, which I believe are shared by the British people, that our decision should be based on a calm, level-headed assessment of the British national interest”.
The prime minister said the UK was working with allies – including in Europe, the US and the Gulf – on a viable plan to reopen the shipping lane, but gave no indication that was imminent.
“We will keep working towards a swift resolution that brings security and stability back to the region and stop the Iranian threat to its neighbours,” he said.
“I want to see an end to this war as quickly as possible, because the longer it goes on, the more dangerous the situation becomes, and the worse it is for the cost of living back here at home.
“It’s a discussion. We’re not at the point of decisions yet. It’s obviously a difficult question, that goes without saying, in relation to how you safeguard maritime traffic.
“We cannot allow the war in the Gulf to turn into a windfall for Putin. Now it’s clear the US operation has massively weakened the military capability of the abhorrent regime in Iran. The question is, what comes next?”
UK officials have been alarmed by Trump’s lack of a plan for ending the conflict, and Starmer said Britain must not lose sight of the fact there would ultimately have to be a negotiated settlement.
With oil costs surging since the start of the conflict, Starmer announced that lower income households reliant on heating oil to warm their homes would receive £53m of government support to help with their bills.
The government has come under pressure to do more to help people across the UK who are worried about the cost of energy bills when the current energy price cap finishes at the end of June. The new level will be announced in May.
Starmer said his instinct was to help people struggling with the cost of living, but suggested it was difficult to predict where oil prices would be and that de-escalating the conflict should be the priority.
The UK was not alone in resisting Trump’s call for ships to be sent to the region. Germany ruled out participation in any military activity, including efforts to reopen the strait. “This is not our war, we have not started it,” the country’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said.
European politicians have emphasised negotiations to reopen the strait. Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said diplomacy needed to prevail and that his country was involved in no naval missions that could be extended.
The position taken by the three major European countries was striking because they had avoided criticising Trump over his decision, alongside Israel, to attack Iran 16 days ago.
Soon after the first strikes, the US president said the goal of the military campaign was regime change, but the war has since become a wider regional conflict, causing energy prices to soar.
Queer starmer, pulling his penis from the brown lord’s backside, says “it was a difficult decision”. (The backside or the “army”? We’ll never know…)
The jew-k army is 65,000. They’re spread throughout the world “protecting” the pwoor defenceless racists that wander around bwitain. Some are, laughably, right next door in Iraq, but they’re needed to keep the Iraqis down. The “problem” queer boy has is the same as the queer in the jewkraine: not enough soldiers to play with the big boys.
The entire bwitish “army” is made up of 65,000 spike-protein-addled trannies, four new-clear submarines and some planes that are needed for gates’ chemtrailing. If the roman army were to invade today, the smart money would be on Caesar.
Don’t worry about it brah. Everything is going according to plan. Stage-managed ‘war’ to progress Jewish-Christian-Islamic ‘end days’ or ‘birth pangs of the Messiah’ Bible script.
There’s another problem the Americans have and it’s a big one. After forming the coalition for Operation Iraqi Freedom the US took control of Iraq’s oil supply. The British Tory Party wasn’t in power at that time, it was Blair’s New Labour who made us part of the coalition, but the Tory Party did vote for that war. A couple of years after Iraq’s occupation the Tory politician William Hague was interviewed about the war and he seemed rather bitter about our role in it. He said we made a mistake with Iraq, and I took from that interview (and Hague seemed to convey it well without saying it), that the US did not share the spoils equally amongst the partners, keeping the bulk of the loot for itself – oil, gold reserves, antiquities for private sale or museum exhibits etc.
The US didn’t just get greedy over Iraq it got greedy with its partners, and Britain realised it got screwed over for all the blood and treasure it spent but got little in the way of oil. If the US did that to Britain it sure did it to other countries in the coalition who they’re even less close to.
Britain’s last minesweeping ship in the region, HMS Kate Middleton, left Bahrain for maintenance days before the war began…”
A’hem.. cough!…cough! Although it’s very commendable of The Woyals to be seen “lending a helping hand” it still seems suspiciously like “rats jumping ship”… which is exactly what you’d expect of Perfidious Albion when the going was about to “get tough”. 🤣
“Despite threats from the US president that Nato faces “a very bad future” if members fail to help reopen the vital waterway, European leaders underlined Washington’s isolation as Germany and Italy said they had no plans to send ships. Australia, France and Japan have taken a similar position.”
Simple “facts” to consider coming from a simple mind:
JEU and Starmers multiculti JUK is preparing to fight a war with Russia by 2030 (lol) and even with Jermany’s WWII experience fighting (and loosing) wars on various fronts (resulting in completely humiliation of the former German race half a century later while being on a permanent spiky political correct money changing leash) it surely will (or can) not engage in Murican dreams. That’s what the “leaders” say.
“Australia has taken a similar position” not to send ships or their fancy new submarines not yet build. In the meantime Australia’s petroleum stockpile is running dry very quick due to rainbow coloured pollitiks of sustainability (and the ME war of course) as petrol prices have jumped close to 1A$ per litre in as little as a fortnight with more drastic increases to be respected including EVERYTHING else that an Ozzy needs to be a demon-cratic Oztralian drowning in foreign debts while being a close ally and co dreamer of the great nightmarish dreams of the kosher Murican whore. That’s what Oztralian “leaders” say.
The “ very bad future” is not faced by Nato alone. It is faced by ALL dependables who have become expendables and that includes EVERYONE – that has not yet been touched (or been toooo busy with oneself) by the grip of money making agents that lead their own and foreign sheeple to the abattoirs.
Once politicians swing gently in the evening breeze the wind of change has truly come. Until then one can make up ones mind and wait for the Messiah, get another quick click on X and OnlyFans, wait for the UN peace keeping troops or simply savour the experience to live ones last life experience moment as the expendable one has become – before it has been accomplished and time (finally) has run out.