{"id":324912,"date":"2026-03-17T07:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=324912"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:27:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:27:53","slug":"starmer-distances-uk-from-iran-war-as-eu-leaders-rule-out-sending-warships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=324912","title":{"rendered":"Starmer distances UK from Iran war as EU leaders rule out sending warships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pippa Crerar<\/strong><\/a>, Jennifer Rankin<\/a> and Lorenzo Tondo<\/a> \u2013 The Guardian March 16, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his clearest signal yet of the UK\u2019s divergence from Donald Trump\u2019s attack on Iran<\/a>, the prime minister said he would stand firm in the face of US pressure despite the decision being \u201cdifficult, there\u2019s no hiding that\u201d.<\/p>\n

As concerns mounted at home over US demands for the British military to help keep shipping lanes open, he said: \u201cWhile taking the necessary action to defend ourselves and our allies, we will not be drawn into the wider war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite threats from the US president that Nato faces \u201ca very bad future\u201d if members fail to help reopen the vital waterway, European leaders underlined Washington\u2019s isolation as Germany<\/a> and Italy said they had no plans to send ships. Australia, France and Japan have taken a similar position.<\/p>\n

This drew a further rebuke from Trump, who singled out Starmer\u2019s failure to provide minesweepers to the Middle East, saying it was terrible and that he was not happy with his close ally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very surprised with the United Kingdom, because two weeks ago, I said, why don\u2019t you send some ships over? And he really didn\u2019t want to do it,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, you don\u2019t want to do it? We\u2019ve been with you. You\u2019re our oldest ally, and we spend a lot of money on, you know, Nato and all of these things to protect you.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re protecting them. We\u2019re working with them on Ukraine. Ukraine\u2019s thousands of miles away, separated by a vast ocean. We don\u2019t have to do that, but we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer told a Downing Street press conferenceon Monday he was \u201clooking through the options\u201d after Trump asked for help in a phone call on Sunday night to keep the strait of Hormuz open<\/a> and unblock global oil supplies from the region.<\/p>\n

Ministers are drawing up plans to send aerial minesweeping drones to help clear the strait amid concerns in Whitehall that complying with Trump\u2019s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s announcement that it would target ships using the strait, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply normally passes, has sent oil prices soaring from about $65 (\u00a349) a barrel to more than $100, and economists predict higher inflation and lower growth this year as a result.<\/p>\n

The situation has put further pressure on the relationship between Starmer and Trump, which has been damaged by the prime minister\u2019s refusal to allow the president to use British bases to launch his initial attack on Tehran.<\/p>\n

Starmer said his decision not to join the initial US offensive had been a matter of \u201cprinciples, 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

The prime minister said the UK was working with allies \u2013 including in Europe<\/a>, the US and the Gulf \u2013 on a viable plan to reopen the shipping lane, but gave no indication that was imminent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will keep working towards a swift resolution that brings security and stability back to the region and stop the Iranian threat to its neighbours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a discussion. We\u2019re not at the point of decisions yet. It\u2019s obviously a difficult question, that goes without saying, in relation to how you safeguard maritime traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow the war in the Gulf to turn into a windfall for Putin. Now it\u2019s clear the US operation has massively weakened the military capability of the abhorrent regime in Iran. The question is, what comes next?\u201d<\/p>\n

UK officials have been alarmed by Trump\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u00a353m of government support to help with their bills.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The UK was not alone in resisting Trump\u2019s call for ships to be sent to the region. Germany ruled out participation in any military activity, including efforts to reopen the strait. \u201cThis is not our war, we have not started it,\u201d the country\u2019s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said.<\/p>\n

European politicians have emphasised negotiations to reopen the strait. Italy\u2019s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said diplomacy needed to prevail and that his country was involved in no naval missions that could be extended.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Soon after the first strikes, the US president said the goal of the military campaign was regime change<\/a>, but the war has since become a wider regional conflict, causing energy prices to soar.<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK joins Germany and Italy in resisting Trump\u2019s efforts to draw them into the widening war<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324913,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324912\/revisions\/324913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}