By Elizabeth Piper and Sarah Young
London — Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday Britain will not be drawn into a wider war in Iran but will work with allies on a “viable” plan to reopen the key Strait of Hormuz, a task he said would be “difficult” without de-escalation in the Middle East.
At a press conference aimed at easing public concern over rising energy costs, Starmer again justified his decision not to take part in the initial US-Israeli strikes on Iran, a move President Donald Trump has criticised, calling the British leader “no Churchill”.
Starmer did not rule out any action to reopen the strait after Trump said at the weekend that Britain, China, France, Japan and South Korea should send warships to the region to help unblock it. But the British leader said any move would need to be agreed by as “many partners as possible”.
Japan and Australia have both said they will not send naval vessels to the strait. Greece, Spain, Italy and Germany also ruled out joining any military operations there, with Berlin adding it is not a job for the Nato alliance.
“We lack the mandate from the United Nations, the European Union or Nato required under the Basic Law,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Berlin, adding that Washington and Israel had not consulted Germany before launching the war.
“That is why the question of how Germany might become militarily involved here does not arise.”
Freedom of navigation
“Ultimately, we have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the [oil] market. That is not a simple task,” Starmer told reporters. “So we’re working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible and ease the economic impact.”
About a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes through the strait, a narrow passage of water between Iran and Oman. Tehran’s effective shutting of the strait has sent oil prices to more than $100 a barrel. That has seen energy prices leap for consumers, and Starmer said it is his priority to support working people with cost-of-living pressures.
He set out the first financial support, a £53m package for the most vulnerable households that rely on heating oil, and said his Labour government will keep other measures under review as it is hard to predict what could happen in three to six months.
British domestic energy prices will largely be shielded by a tariff-pricing cap, which will be in place until July. Were the impact to extend beyond that, the government would face calls to repeat the support Britain gave to households at the start of the Ukrainian war, when it stumped up £40bn.
The quickest way to ease cost-of-living pressures, Starmer said, would be to de-escalate the conflict in the Middle East.
Asked for the specifics on what Britain could contribute after it brought its last mine-hunter in the region back to Britain this month, he reiterated that it has autonomous mine-hunting systems in the area and is considering other options.
The Iran conflict has strained ties — the so-called special relationship — between Britain and the US, but Starmer said he would rather protect Britain’s interests than be dragged deeper into the war.
After a conversation with Trump on Sunday, Starmer said he had a “good call” with the US leader and the two spoke “in the way that you would expect between two allies and two leaders”.
Earlier, German defence minister Boris Pistorius rejected Trump’s demands for military support and downplayed threats that such a stance by allies would hurt Nato.
What does Trump “expect a handful or two handfuls of European frigates to do in the Strait of Hormuz that the powerful US Navy cannot do?” he said in Berlin. “This is not our war; we have not started it.”
