Sir Keir Starmer has backed Donald Trump’s dramatic decision to bomb Iran overnight.
The US president said the attacks carried out at Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan were “very successful”.
In a statement, the prime minister said: “Iran’s nuclear programme is a grave threat to international security. Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat.
“The situation in the Middle East remains volatile and stability in the region is a priority. We call on Iran to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis.”
Later in a joint statement with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz following a virtual meeting of the E3 group of leaders, they said: “Our aim continues to be to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“We call upon Iran to engage in negotiations leading to an agreement that addresses all concerns associated with its nuclear program. We stand ready to contribute to that goal in coordination with all parties.
“We urge Iran not to take any further action that could destabilize the region.
“We will continue our joint diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions and ensure the conflict does not intensify and spread further.”
It comes just 48 hours before Sir Keir is set to join other world leaders, including representatives of the Trump administration, for a major Nato summit in the Hague.
Downing Street said that the prime minister called allies including Jordan and Oman to discuss the ongoing situation further before chairing an emergency Cobra committee in London.
Like other allies, the UK only learned of the attack by B-2 stealth bombers after it had happened.
Foreign secretary David Lammy and his French counterpart had held talks with Iran on Friday, but the discussions were unsuccessful.
Speaking on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds confirmed the UK government is “in active conversations to get people out” of Israel, Iran and the wider region.
“That will be hours, not days,” he added.
“We have been making extensive preparations.”
He said British citizens in the region are “the government’s first priority.”
The business secretary was asked by Sir Trevor how concerned he was about Iranian terrorist activity in the UK.
He responded: “Very.”
He noted: “Not a week goes by when we don’t have an Iranian cyber attack on the UK.”
Mr Reynolds said that the threat in the UK “is not hypothetical”.
He suggested that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) could now be proscribed and sanctioned.
But he insisted the Iranian regime had “miscalculated” international resolve.
Mr Reynolds also confirmed that the UK will be talking with allies to prevent Iran from blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
In a sign of political unity, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch posted on X, formerly Twitter: “By targeting Iran’s nuclear sites, the US has taken decisive action against a regime that fuels global terror and directly threatens the UK.
“Iranian operatives have plotted murders and attacks on British soil. We should stand firmly with the US and Israel.”
Earlier, the former Tory defence secretary Grant Shapps gave more full-throated support to America’s actions overnight.
He said on X/Twitter: “I don’t often agree with Trump, but destroying Iran’s nuclear sites was absolutely the right call. The IRGC ( Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) wants Israel wiped off the map. Tehran arms Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis & militias. Iran fuels Middle East chaos. Starmer’s calls for ‘restraint’ were dangerously naive.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also gave his backing to the Americans.
“Reform UK stands behind the military actions of the USA overnight,” he said. “Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons – the future of Israel depends on it.”
However, the Labour chair of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee has described President Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear sites as a “big mistake”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme, Dame Emily Thornberry said the attacks could mark “the start of a more deadly phase” of the conflict.
“Donald Trump says ‘I want this to be the end of it’, but you don’t have any control over these things,” she said.
“He doesn’t have any control over how the Iranians will react.
“The concern is it will just become a wider conflict, and we are at a very dangerous moment.”
Former Tory foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind suggested that Mr Trump had prevented a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
He told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “Every Arab state, every other country of the Middle East, has been terrified of the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons, not just because there is a traditional hostility between Iran and the Arab states, but because there was an assumption, indeed a clear step, by Saudi Arabia, that if Iran ever did get nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia would have to see them.
“Turkey would contemplate that, too. Egypt would have an extraordinary amount of nuclear proliferation in what is already a very volatile region. So I think what the Americans have done, assuming they have been successful, either in destroying Iran’s nuclear capability or, in the Middle East, pushing it back very, many, many years, that is something which actually contributes to peace and nuclear non-proliferation, not just for the benefit of Israel, but for the region as a whole and for the world.”
Former Tory security minister Tom Tugendhat supported the attacks, warning that Iranian nuclear missiles could ultimately have hit London, and the site that was hit was “designed to kill Jews”.
Former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt told The Independent: “I do not think the president would have done this if there were the possibility of successful negotiations. There needs to be focus beyond military action. There is clearly a need to reset Iran’s civil nuclear programme if it cannot be trusted with such technology.”
But independent MP Zarah Sultana, who has been suspended by Labour, compared the situation to the Iraq War.
She said: “We’re being told it’s about national security. The same institutions that told us that it was right to go into Iraq, are doing the same thing again, and they cannot be trusted. And this is wrong. The UK should not be America’s poodle in its imperialist foreign policy. We should stand against it.”
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