THE Chief Secretary to the Treasury has said he is “proud” of the approach Sir Keir Starmer has taken to the conflict in Iran and denied that British bases in Cyprus had been left undefended.
Asked if the UK was a laughing stock, he told GB News: “No. Look, HMS Dragon and Wildcat helicopters are going to be out there as soon as possible, but they build on the defensive capability that we’ve been increasing in recent weeks.
“So in recent weeks, we’ve been making sure there are F-35 jets there in our bases in Cyprus, Typhoon fighters in Qatar, the radar capability as well. All of these defensive capabilities have been building up in recent weeks, so they build on what’s there already.”
He denied that British bases in Cyprus had been left undefended: “Well, there has been defensive capability being built up recently. The Prime Minister has taken a decision, and I’m proud of the way that he’s approached it, because it’s a really significant, important decision that he’s been taking over the last few days when it comes to putting our armed forces into conflict and the impact it might have on the UK.
“He took the decision at the weekend that we would not get involved with the initial offensive strikes in Iran. But then once Iran retaliated and put British nationals at risk, it was absolutely right that we stepped up and got involved in defensive action, and that’s about making sure we’re protecting British nationals and letting the US use our bases to take out the Iranians missiles and missile capabilities.”
On President Trump’s criticism of the Prime Minister, Murray said: “President Trump has expressed his disagreement with the decision that we took about not getting involved in those initial strikes, but the Prime Minister took that decision on the basis of our national interest and what is in our national interest, and on that basis, we decided, he decided not to get involved in the initial strikes.
“But then when, as a result of those strikes, Iran started to attack other countries in the region, and British nationals, of which there are some 300,000 in the region, were at risk, the Prime Minister took the decision that we would be involved in those defensive actions, which is absolutely right, and what I think the British people would expect.”
Asked if he was saying the Prime Minister decided to sit back and see what happened, he said: “Sorry, no, that’s not correct, because the defensive capability has been built up in recent weeks to make sure we have defensive capability in the region.
“We are now increasing that further, but we’ve been building that up in recent weeks, and that’s put us in a position where we, the Prime Minister, has taken the cool headed decision to not get involved in the offensive strikes, but to step up and make sure we are protecting British nationals when they’re at risk.”
