PM defends use of UK bases for defensive action but says Britain has learned lessons from Iraq on need for ‘thought-through plan’

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Keir Starmer has issued his strongest rebuke yet of Donald Trump’s action in Iran, saying the UK did not believe in “regime change from the skies”.

The prime minister said the UK would not join offensive strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, but defended his decision late on Sunday to permit the US to conduct defensive strikes on Iranian missile sites from RAF bases, saying that was “the best way to protect British interests and British lives”.