Defense Secretary John Healey accused opposition politicians of deliberately undermining the UK’s relationship with Donald Trump, saying it was “unpatriotic” for MPs to try to turn the US against Keir Starmer.
Healey, speaking to The Guardian at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which was hit by a drone strike over the weekend, said he had been shocked by the way politicians such as Nigel Farage had sought to “undermine” the UK’s relationship with the US.
The Conservatives and Reform Britain have criticized the British decision not to allow the United States to use British bases for offensive strikes against Iranian targets, although they will be used to help defend UK interests and allies in the region from Iranian retaliatory attacks.
But Healey said he had been surprised by the extent to which senior MPs had tried to curry favor with the US president by undermining the UK government’s position, not only on the attacks on Iran but also on the Chagos Islands deal.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, and Farage have praised Trump for his opposition – albeit fluctuating – to the government’s Chagos plan, which the US president criticized when he was apparently frustrated with the UK over other issues.
“For an elected British politician from the House of Commons, Reform or Conservative, to defect to the United States… asking President Trump to reject the deal we had agreed and worked to protect for the next 100 years our sovereign base and our ability to operate from Diego Garcia, is unpatriotic, undermines Britain and is not the kind of leadership the British people should expect from elected politicians,” Healey said.
“It seems to me that his intention is to undermine the British relationship with the United States. That seems to be his intention, unpatriotic, unacceptable and not what people should expect from people elected to speak in parliament and represent this country.”
British allies in the Gulf and Cyprus have criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the region, and UK citizens trapped there, from Iranian missile attacks.
Healey traveled to Cyprus to calm diplomatic fallout over a drone that evaded detection and hit a hangar at RAF Akrotiri containing spy planes, with little damage, angering local ministers.
The Cypriot high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Kyriacos Kouros, said the country was “disappointed” by the British failure to warn the island’s population about the impending attack.
Healey met Cypriot Defense Minister Vasilis Palmas to discuss how the UK was strengthening air defences. A further 400 UK troops are supporting air defense activities at UK bases in Cyprus.
After Keir Starmer couldn’t say whether he was confident Trump had a plan for the next stage of the conflict, Healey declined to say whether he had faith in the end of America, or whether he was confident whether the administration had a coherent plan for the aftermath.
“It is up to the United States to establish – our focus now, my focus as defense secretary – is to ensure that we do everything we can in a period when Iranian threats and Iranian attacks are increasingly indiscriminate (to) protect the British people, the military serving in bases like this, to protect allies and to protect this island,” he said.
“We can respond to the requests we receive from allies and step up and assist in their defense. We will do it in a coordinated way and we will do it as we have done from day one, with Britain playing that leadership role.
“We are doing what we need to do now to reduce the risk and do everything we can to protect the British people, British bases and British allies.”
Healey said he did not accept that the UK was unprepared for the initial attacks or the scale of Iranian retaliation. On Thursday, the government announced it would send four more Typhoon fighter jets and two attack helicopters to the region, although a Royal Navy destroyer remains in Portsmouth.
“We had already strengthened air defenses here on the island of Cyprus weeks before this conflict. Not only to defend this base and our British forces personnel, but also the island of Cyprus and neighboring allied countries,” Healey said.
“We also put additional air defenses and fast aircraft in Qatar to do the same thing. So we are leading a coordinated regional defensive operation that we expected to be necessary and that we have flown and helped lead since day one of this conflict.”
The Defense Secretary suggested the UK was unlikely to step up operations further in the short term and said the country was “playing the role we can best play”.
