Nigel Farage makes U-turn to say Britain shouldn’t get involved in Iran war

LONDON – Reform UK leader Nigel Farage reversed his position on Britain’s involvement in the Iran war on March 10, saying Britain should not get involved in the conflict.

Speaking in a publicity stunt at a gas station in Derbyshire, central England, during which he subsidised the fuel of motorists as he announced his party’s plan to cut fuel duty, Mr Farage said much of the world was losing respect for Britain because of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s tentative response to the conflict.

But he also suggested that he would not have acted much differently.

“Given that we can’t even send a Royal Navy vessel to defend British sovereign territory and an RAF base, we certainly don’t have the capability to offer anything of any value to the Americans or the Israelis,” he said, referring to a British base in Cyprus that was hit by a drone.

“If we can’t even defend Cyprus, let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.”

Mr Farage’s latest comments – coming after a spike in oil prices – contradict those he gave at a press conference last week.

“I’m normally incredibly nervous about intervening in foreign wars – I believe this is the right one,” he said on March 4.

“Nigel Farage spent the past week calling for an escalation that would make cost of living pressures even worse,” Labour party chairwoman Anna Turley said in a statement.

“If he had been prime minister, he would have already dragged our country into this war and wouldn’t be able to (make a) U-turn like he has done today.”

Mr Farage has been caught in a bind over the conflict, which was catalysed by strikes against Iran by the US and Israel.

While he has tried to avoid being too critical of US President Donald Trump, a personal friend, polling shows British voters are broadly opposed to getting involved – and rising oil prices threaten to drive up the cost of living, which is one of the top concerns among Britons. 

Mr Starmer turned down a US request to use British bases ahead of the initial strikes against Iran.

He has since allowed their use for the US to launch strikes on Iranian missile depots, while limiting Britain’s direct involvement to defensive operations. 

Though Mr Farage did not indicate how he would have gone further, had his party been in government, he continued to be critical of Mr Starmer’s stance.

It was a mistake for the government to initially bar the US from using British bases to attack Iran, Mr Farage said on March 10, adding: “I absolutely want us to be supportive.”

He said that the US and Israel had started the war, and must “remove the nuclear threat” in Iran. “If they don’t do that, they will have failed,” he said.

At the press stunt in Derbyshire, Mr Farage unveiled plans to reverse a planned rise in Britain fuel duty that sets in from September, and fund the tax cut by scrapping green policies such as subsidies for boiler upgrades and electric cars.

Mr Farage brushed off concerns over the soaring price of oil, saying that oil would be back close to US$80 a barrel “if the Straits of Hormuz are cleared”, though he accepted that was an unknown condition. BLOOMBERG