Healey defends UK response to Iran crisis following Trump criticism

Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK should be judged on its actions in the Middle East rather than Donald Trump’s social media posts.

Mr Healey acknowledged the US president’s anger over the UK’s refusal to grant him free rein to launch strikes against Iran from British bases.

But he said British personnel had helped to protect the lives of American servicemen and women in Iraq by downing drones fired by Tehran in response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign.

He said he believed the US remained committed to Nato despite Mr Trump’s threats to pull out of the transatlantic alliance over a lack of military support for the Iran campaign.

Sir Keir Starmer refused to give Mr Trump permission to launch offensive military strikes by US forces from British bases, but later allowed limited action against Iran’s missile sites and targets threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Mr Trump has used a series of media appearances and posts on his Truth Social site to criticise the Prime Minister over his lack of support for Operation Epic Fury.

But Mr Healey said told the London Defence Conference: “In the end I’d rather our actions spoke for themselves.

“And if you look, even in this current conflict, the basing permissions that we in the UK have agreed with the US have been invaluable to their military operations.”

Put to him that Mr Trump was furious that the UK did not give permission to use British bases earlier, Mr Healey said “sure”, but added: “In northern Iraq, our RAF regiment has been, almost daily, taking down drones and jointly protecting US forces and that joint base we’ve got with them.

“If we focus on our actions rather than just simply the exchange of words and social media posts, then the fundamentals for me remain.

“The fundamentals for me remain that America is absolutely locked into, with benefits as well as massive contributions, to Nato.

“We have to do more – we are, and we will – on the European side. And there are, there are deep values that our nations share, that in the end, will see us through the ups and downs of the political cycles, as as they have done both sides of Atlantic in previous decades.”

Mr Healey announced that start-up firm Cambridge Aerospace will supply new anti-drone interceptor missiles and launchers to the UK armed forces and Gulf allies.

The Skyhammer system is designed to counter the Shahed-style kamikaze drones launched by Iran.

The first batch of missiles and launchers will be delivered to the Ministry of Defence in May under what officials said was a “multimillion-pound” contract.

Mr Healey said the continued absence of the long-delayed defence investment plan, originally due last year, had not hampered the MoD’s ability to sign new contracts.

He said: “This is a 10-year investment plan. It’s got to put right a programme that we had under the last government that was over-committed, it was underfunded, it was unsuited to the threats we faced.”

Mr Healey promised “we will publish the investment plan as soon as we can”.

The Government has committed to increase core defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product – a measure of the size of the economy – from April next year, rising to 3.5% by 2035, but Mr Healey acknowledged he would like more now.

He said: “Now, would I like more resources? Yes, of course, every defence secretary would, and we have to make sure our defence resources are used to best effect.

“They will increase as we see the increase in defence spending playing through.”