Britain has begun drawing up options for a mass evacuation of its citizens from the Middle East “by air, land or sea”, as UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer distanced himself from US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
UK officials believe at least 200,000 British nationals, many of them on holiday or in transit, may be in the region and have asked them to “register their presence”.
One official said there were no current plans for a “small boats style evacuation” of citizens — a reference to the 1940 rescue of troops from Dunkirk — but added: “We have to be thinking about all options.”
Most of the affected people are in the United Arab Emirates. The process of registering their presence is part of an operation to identify those who may be most vulnerable, for example the elderly or infirm.
With airspace in the region closed, one possibility would be to take people in the Gulf on buses to Saudi airports, including Riyadh, a journey of around 10 hours. Another option would be a journey by boat to Cyprus.
UK nationals in Bahrain, Israel, Palestine, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have been urged to register.
More than 75,000 people had registered by Sunday afternoon, UK officials said, in what is seen as one of the biggest ever British consular operations. So far they have been told to stay put and follow advice on taking shelter.
Starmer has declined to support the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, which Britain believes to be in breach of international law, as the UK attempts to avoid being drawn into the conflict.
John Healey, UK defence secretary, on Sunday repeatedly refused to endorse the strikes. Britain’s stance has been much more ambivalent than Canada and Australia, who have backed the military action.
Dame Priti Patel, the Conservative’s shadow foreign secretary, who was in Washington last week, told the FT that the US administration was already “very, very unhappy” with Britain, partly over the joint UK-US Diego Garcia air base.
Starmer has refused to let President Donald Trump use the base for strikes on Iran, according to UK officials. Patel said the Tories fully supported the strikes on Iran and Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, urged Starmer to allow the use of British military bases and “support the Americans in this vital fight”.
But while Starmer’s stance risks a rift with the White House, the prime minister is caught in a politically precarious position with calls from the left for him to openly criticise the US-Israeli attacks.
Labour suffered a by-election defeat to the Green Party this week in Gorton and Denton, a contest in which the Greens argued that Starmer had taken a soft approach to Israel over Gaza.
Zack Polanski, Green Party leader, said on Sunday: “This is an illegal, unprovoked and brutal attack that shows once again that the US and Israel are rogue states.”
Dame Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said on X: “I am pleased to see the UK is not involved in these strikes on Iran. They are ill-advised and illegal.”
The prime minister, a lawyer by training, said on Saturday that Britain’s military operations in the Middle East were about defending UK interests and allies, and were being conducted “within international law”.
Healey said “few people will mourn” the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, but he repeatedly declined to say in a BBC interview whether the US strikes were legal and whether he backed them.
“Britain played no part in the strikes on Iran. We share, however, the primary aim of all allies in the region and the US that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon,” the UK defence secretary said.
Lord Peter Ricketts, former head of the UK Foreign Office, said Starmer was in the uncomfortable position of “trying to steer between two rocks”, attempting to uphold international law while not further antagonising Trump.
“If you’re going to attack a country you have to show it is in self-defence and that there is some kind of imminent threat. You can’t make that case here.” Ricketts told the FT: “An indifference to international law is dangerous.”
The UK has bases, military personnel and tens of thousands of civilians in the region.
Healey has said that British aircraft and radar had been deployed to “defend our people, defend our bases and defend our allies”, but the UK has so far suggested that Tehran is not deliberately targeting its facilities.
“This regime is lashing out,” Healey said. “It’s lashing out in an increasingly indiscriminate and widespread way, and people will be really concerned that it’s not just military targets but civilian airports like Kuwait.”
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The UK Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that an RAF Typhoon had taken down an Iranian drone heading towards Qatari territory.
Western officials said that British troops at a US base in Bahrain were within 200 metres of an Iranian missile and drone strike. About 300 personnel are based there. British forces in Iraq were within 400 metres of an Iranian missile strike.
Meanwhile, the UK defence ministry said two Iranian missiles were fired in the direction of Cyprus but that it did not assess they were actually targeted at the island where Britain operates military bases.
A Republic of Cyprus government spokesperson on Sunday said: “There is no indication whatsoever that any threat to the country has occurred.”
Additional reporting by Charles Clover
