Starmer denies U-turn claims on UK bases go-ahead for Iran strikes

Critics will accuse him of yet another U-turn, but Sir Keir Starmer insists circumstances have changed and British lives are now at risk from attacks by Iran.

The prime minister's announcement that two British airbases - Fairford in Gloucestershire and the hotly disputed Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands - can be used by the US came at 9pm on Sunday. If not a U-turn, it was certainly a change from his original decision to reject Donald Trump's earlier request to use the bases, a snub that will have massively irked the US president.

Who knows? The PM's change of heart, which came after a phone call with The Donald on Saturday, may even persuade him to drop his opposition to the controversial Chagos deal. Well, he can but hope.

After the Number 10 announcement, government sources were quick to point out that the bases will not be used for bombing Iran, but to stop the Iranians attacking Brits and others throughout the Middle East. "It's very clearly not a U-turn," a close ally of the PM told Sky News.

"This is a different question that has been asked. It's about stopping missiles being fired at British citizens." But the government is already facing calls for a Commons vote on the use of the UK bases, led - not surprisingly - by the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who said the move was "a slippery slope".

In his latest solemn TV address, the PM said the aim was to enable the US and its allies - including the UK - to destroy Iran's missile depots and rocket launchers used to fire the missiles. "The United States has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose," Sir Keir said in a lengthy explanation of his decision.

"We have taken the decision to accept this request - to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region, killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk, and hitting countries that have not been involved. "The basis of our decision is the collective self-defence of longstanding friends and allies and protecting British lives." Either the PM or Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will have to defend the decision in the Commons on Monday, when left-wingers will condemn it, and Tories and Reform UK will claim it has come too late.

Anticipating the claim by Labour left-wingers and MPs from the smaller political parties that the move breaches international law, the PM published the legal advice along with his statement. It states: "The UK and its allies are permitted under international law to use or support force in such circumstances where acting in self-defence is the only feasible means to deal with an ongoing armed attack and where the force used is necessary and proportionate." Let's see if that convinces the critics.

In his TV address, the PM said Iran had hit airports and hotels where British citizens are staying. There are at least 200,000 Brits in the region - "residents, families on holiday and those in transit.