Starmer tries to reassure as Iran crisis deepens
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The PM acknowledged people are worried about family abroad, the economy, and potential further escalation.
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Starmer tries to reassure as Iran crisis deepens 55 minutes ago Share Save Henry Zeffman Chief political correspondent Share Save "Worried sick". They are not the words a prime minister wants to be using from the Downing Street podium to describe the emotional state of their country. Sir Keir Starmer identified three ways in which the public are worrying: about their family and friends, about the impact of this war on the British economy, and about the potential for greater escalation. This press conference appeared to be primarily for the purpose of reassuring Britons. But - as he acknowledged - there was only so much reassurance he could offer. For those with family and friends stranded in the Middle East, the prime minister sought to manage expectations. He announced that the repatriation flight from Oman that was meant to take off on Wednesday but was scuppered by technical issues is now in the air, and around 4,000 Britons had already made it home. However, that is just a tiny fraction of the 140,000 British nationals who have told the government they are in the Middle East. "This is a huge undertaking," he said, describing it as many times bigger than the much-criticised evacuation of Afghanistan in 2021. "It's not going to happen overnight," he said. The government's private hope - but it is just a hope, not an expectation - is that the conflict will calm in time for the government not to have to find a way to evacuate all of those people. They also know that, as Afghanistan showed, those complex consular issues can become for much of the public the most vivid way of judging how competently the government is handling an international crisis. Healey visits Cyprus after criticism of UK response to drone attacks Starmer defends Iran response as Badenoch calls for more action When it came to the economy, the prime minister was again fairly downbeat. Like Rachel Reeves earlier this week, he talked of how the UK had the right plan for the economy, which the current...
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