Campaigners condemn Starmer’s secrecy over US attack on Iran Anti-war campaigners have accused the British government of “playing down” its support for an illegal US attack on [Iran][1] as American warplanes continue to transit through UK military bases this week on the way to the Middle East. The opaque decision-making, they say, has left much of the British public in the dark about the role the UK is playing and therefore unable to challenge what is happening. Dozens of US warplanes have been able to transit through sites in Suffolk, with fighter jets going via Lakenheath while intelligence and refueling planes left from nearby Mildenhall. “Where is the government’s announcement on this?” asked Sophie Bolt, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. “The total secrecy and denial, refusing to confirm or deny – which is their standard response to anything going on ostensibly at a US military base – means that you can’t hold them to account.” Last week, the *Times*, [citing][2] unnamed government sources, said that British prime minister Keir Starmer had blocked a request from US president Donald Trump to use RAF Fairford or British facilities at Diego Garcia for any attack on Iran. Trump has signalled that the bases could be crucial to attacking Iran. RAF Fairford has a 10,000-foot runway and is the US Air Force’s only European airfield for heavy bombers. Diego Garcia has a runway long enough for US B-2 stealth bombers that could bomb deep inside Iran. But Starmer was said to have told Trump that such an attack would be in breach of international law, according to the *Times*. The Ministry of Defence, however, declined to confirm that position when *Declassified* asked on Tuesday for the second time in a week. ### RELATED [ ## How Britain could be involved in a US attack on... ][3] [READ MORE **][4] ## **Amassing an armada** Some of America’s most advanced aircraft and aerial refuelling tankers have transited through RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath on their way to the Middle East [this week][5], continuing a six-week trend that has seen Trump’s so-called [“massive armada”][6] amass in the region. *Declassified* visited Lakenheath on 21 January to [witness][7] the build-up which has continued unabated. Why, activists ask, can American planes pass through RAF bases to participate in an attack Trump has threatened to launch in the [coming days][8], but not use Fairford or Diego Garcia? *Declassified* put that question to the MoD this week, along with asking whether the government has taken formal legal advice about its potential involvement in a US attack on Iran and if plans are in place to protect British personnel and citizens if there is an attack. The MoD did not answer the questions. A government spokesperson said: “As routine, we do not comment on operational matters. “There is a political process ongoing between the US and Iran, which the UK supports. Iran must never be able to develop a nuclear weapon, and our priority is security in the region.” Campaigners from Lakenheath Alliance for Peace said that even if the current use of the RAF bases offers indirect help for an attack on Iran, the UK is “clearly complicit” in aiding and assisting an internationally wrongful act. “It is essential that all peace loving people oppose and disrupt in any peaceful way they can the continuing deployment of planes from Lakenheath,” Angie Zelter, one of the group’s members and a veteran activist, said. A spokesperson for Nukewatch UK said it was clear from the quantity of American planes that have passed through British military bases since January how “hugely important” they are for the US strategically. “Trump wouldn’t be able to undertake the strike in the same way if the aircraft weren’t able to stop off at these bases on their way to the Middle East,” they said. “If you are serious about saying we don’t want an illegal act of war to take place, then you have to do everything you can to stop it and that includes letting your bases not be used for aircraft to fly through.” There is further uncertainty over whether British naval personnel are embedded on US ships headed towards Iran. The USS Winston S. Churchill, which traditionally has a British navigator, is steaming east through the Mediterranean. The ship is accompanying the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, which had UK personnel stationed onboard in recent months. The Royal Navy declined to clarify when asked by the [Canary][9]. ### RELATED [ ## The 24-site US military network in Britain worth £11 billion ][10] [READ MORE **][11] ## **‘Controlling the narrative’** Bolt said the lack of information about the decisions being taken in relation to the American use of British bases is not new, but something her organisation has found to be especially true in relation to RAF Lakenheath. Last year, it was widely reported, though never confirmed by the US or UK governments, that the US Air Force transported nuclear weapons for storage at the airbase in Suffolk, returning the weapons removed under the Obama administration in 2008. It was unclear at the time, she said, whether US forces at the base would be expected to abide by British regulations around nuclear weapons. So Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament had lawyers from Leigh Day send a letter to the MoD to find out. In response, the MoD declassified a certificate issued by former defence secretary Ben Wallace in 2021 which, it turns out, had exempted all US military bases across Britain from abiding by UK emergency radiation regulations. That exemption could have massive ramifications for residents in proximity to bases if there was a nuclear accident. “It means that the local councils that have a duty of care in terms of emergency planning wouldn’t be informed that there were US nuclear weapons at the base,” Bolt said. “It means they are under no obligation to have robust emergency procedures.” It was around this time, Bolt said she observed, that the clamping down on transparency from the government about decisions relating to the US base began in earnest. “It’s totally controlling the narrative. How are we supposed to properly interrogate this and hold the government to account,” she said. “We don’t know, do we? It’s just sort of inferred through indirect reporting. And that’s just what British foreign policy is about, particularly in relation to Britain’s relationship with the US.” The post [Campaigners condemn Starmer’s secrecy over US attack on Iran][12] appeared first on [Declassified UK][13]. [1]: https://www.declassifieduk.org/tag/iran/ [2]: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/trump-chagos-islands-deal-iran-attack-british-bases-kcj0gzbr8?gaa_at=eafs [3]: https://www.declassifieduk.org/?post_type=post&p=62287 [4]: https://www.declassifieduk.org/?post_type=post&p=62287 [5]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv9JsHtpF6g [6]: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202601285784 [7]: https://youtu.be/P89XmWdn5Vw [8]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86yjnw4x49o [9]: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2026/02/24/iran-british-personnel/ [10]: https://www.declassifieduk.org/?post_type=post&p=61881 [11]: https://www.declassifieduk.org/?post_type=post&p=61881 [12]: https://www.declassifieduk.org/campaigners-condemn-starmers-secrecy-over-us-attack-on-iran/ [13]: https://www.declassifieduk.org https://www.declassifieduk.org/campaigners-condemn-starmers-secrecy-over-us-attack-on-iran/