Yvette Cooper has rejected Tony Blair’s claim that the UK should have supported Donald Trump’s initial airstrikes against Iran, saying Britain had to “learn lessons” from mistakes made in Iraq.
At a private lunch on Friday, the former Labor prime minister said Keir Starmer “should have backed the United States from the beginning” and allowed the Trump administration to use British air bases, adding: “If they are your ally and they are an indispensable cornerstone of your security… you had better show up when they want.”
Blair’s intervention comes as Trump steps up his criticism of Starmer over the UK’s lack of immediate support for US and Israeli attacks on Iran, saying on social media: “We don’t need people joining wars after we’ve already won!” Asked about Blair’s comments, Cooper told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “I just don’t agree.”
The Foreign Secretary added: “There are some people in politics who think we should always agree with the US, whatever that may be. There are other people in politics who think we should never again take action with the US whatever the circumstances. I don’t think any of those positions are in the UK’s national interest, and it is Keir Starmer’s responsibility to act in the UK’s national interest for British citizens.”
Asked if he was calling Blair “a poodle”, he said: “I think the point is to make sure that we actually learn the lessons from some of the things that went wrong in Iraq, and I think that’s exactly what Keir Starmer has done.”
Blair, who has been fiercely criticized over the past two decades for his decision to join the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, made the comments at a private Jewish News event on Friday, adding that he had already made his criticism of the government clear. He told attendees at the event that alliances were tested “when it’s tough”, said bases were necessary for refueling and added that the conflict was “not like Vietnam”, the Mail on Sunday reported.
“It’s not like the Iraq campaign (where) we sent thousands of British troops. So I think the case needs to be made to the public about this,” he said. “You have to tell them that the American relationship is important. It is especially important today. It is not a question of whether it is this president or that president.”
A spokesman for Blair said the comments came at a private event and were not intended to be made public.
Responding to Trump’s repeated scathing criticism of Starmer last week (which included the US president saying on Saturday that Starmer’s help was not needed in Iran, and earlier in the week that the prime minister was “not Winston Churchill”), Cooper said the UK had to “make decisions ourselves” and act in its own national interest.
She told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “It is up to the president of the United States to decide what he believes is in the national interest of the United States, and that is up to him.
“But it is our job as the UK government to decide what is in the UK’s national interest, and that does not mean simply agreeing with other countries or outsourcing our foreign policy to other countries.”
His comments came as the Iranian ambassador in London warned the UK to be “very careful” about getting further involved in the war. The United Kingdom has given the United States permission to use British bases for “defensive strikes” against Iranian facilities, but has not participated in any direct attacks.
Seyed Ali Mousavi told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that his country would have “the right to self-defence” if the UK directly joined US and Israeli attacks on Iran. He warned that the British government and other nations should be “very delicate, very careful” in their actions, adding that he believed the British government had learned lessons from the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
