RAF airbase in Cyprus hit as Cooper defends decision to allow US to use UK bases for Iran strikes
Good morning and welcome to today’s live coverage.
Just hours after Keir Starmer said that the UK has allowed the US use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus was hit by a suspected drone strike.
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, who has been making the rounds on the morning shows, confirmed the strike on the Akrotiri base but did not provide any more details. Cypriot authorities and the Ministry of Defence have said that there were no casualties and limited damage.
On BBC Breakfast, Cooper defended the decision to allow the US to use UK military bases, saying that the decision was purely “about defensive action around the Gulf.”
“We made a deliberate decision to not provide support for the US strikes that have been taking place over the weekend. We have continued to take the view that we wanted to see diplomatic progress and negotiated agreement around this threat from Iranian nuclear weapons,” Cooper said.
“But we also now face the situation where there are 300,00 estimated British citizens in other Gulf countries that are being targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.
“That is why we are providing support for defensive action. It’s important to say that the UK is not going to be involved directly in those strikes, but are providing support. This is about ballistic missiles and launches that are pointed at the Gulf. It is only about defensive action around the Gulf. It is not about support for any political or economic or broader infrastructure targets. There’s a clear difference there.”
For the latest on the Middle East, please follow The Guardian’s live coverage here.
Cooper fielded a number of questions about possible evacuation plans for the Britons in Gulf countries that are being hit. She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that they are working with the airlines, travel companies and local governments and are sending out rapid deployment teams to provide support for Britons in the region, some of whom are unable to return to the UK because of closed airspace and grounded flights. She said 102,000 British nationals have registered their presence in the region.
“We’re saying to people, the most important thing at the moment is to follow the local advice, which in most places is around sheltering in place, and we are sending out rapid deployment teams to the region to work with the travel industry, to work with local governments as well, to make sure that citizens can get support,” Cooper said on Sky News.
“Of course, we want people to get safely home as swiftly as possible.”
Key events
Farage supports regime change in Iran
Ben Quinn
Nigel Farage has said the he supports regime change in Iran as he claimed that Keir Starmer’s “pathetic” position on the war threatened Britain’s special relationship with the US.
The Reform UK leader stopped short of saying that he would be in support of British troops being committed to the ground in Iran but said that the RAF and Royal Navy should be deployed to support US strikes on Iran, which are being undertaken with Israel.
“This is, I firmly believe that freeing up, freeing-up Persian people can go on and achieve the most extraordinary things. So yes, I do support it personally, I support regime change very much indeed,” he told a press conference in Westminster.
Farage said that Britain’s involvement was justified on the basis that Iran posed a threat to a quarter of a million British people living in Dubai, “and probably up to half a million living across the whole of the Middle East.”
Britain has agreed to a US request to use UK military bases for “defensive” strikes on Iranian missile sites, the prime minister has said, though he added that the UK had learned lessons from the “mistakes of Iraq” and “will not join offensive action”.
He made the announcement after a British RAF base in Cyprus was hit by a drone strike on Sunday night.
Cooper: British interests are being targeted by Iran
Pippa Crerar
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed on Good Morning Britain that it is the Minstry of Defence determined that the drone that struck the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyrpus overnight was launched before the prime minister’s statement – meaning it was not in retaliation and confirms that “British interests are being targeted by the Iranian regime”. “We cannot ignore that,” Cooper said.
“We have always been clear that we wanted to see diplomatic processes around preventing Iran developing a nuclear programme, we continue to support that, we believe we need an agreement at the end of this to prevent that development and constrain the threat Iran poses to the region.
“But at the moment we need to recognise the threat to British citizens in the area.”
Greece to send two frigates and two F-16 fighter jets to Cyprus
After an unmanned drone struck the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus overnight – and two more drones heading toward the base were struck down on Monday – Greece will send two frigates and two F-16 fighter jets to Cyprus “to contribute to its defence against the threats it faces,” said Greek defence minister Nikos Dendias, who will also travel to Cyprus tomorrow.
For the latest on Europe’s response to US-Israel war on Iran, follow The Guardian’s live coverage here.
Report: Trump ‘very disappointed’ in Starmer over Iran
Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” in Keir Starmer for blocking him from using British bases to carry out strikes on Iran and that he took “far too much time” to change his mind, The Telegraph reports.
The UK had previously refused to grant the US permission to conduct strikes from its bases. But Starmer changed course last night, announcing that the UK would allow the US to use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites – after an unmanned drone had struck the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus.
Trump has indicated that he specifically wants to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia – the largest of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean. In an interview with The Telegraph, Trump said Starmer’s initial refusal with Diego Garcia was unlike anything that had “happened between our countries before”, adding that it “sounds like he was worried about the legality”.
Tories accuse Starmer and Labour of ‘sitting on the fence’ with Iran
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge went on Sky News to criticise Keir Starmer and his handling of the conflict.
“I’ve been very clear for weeks that if we were in government and the US had asked for our permission, we would have given them permission…but what they got with the prime minister as we saw last summer with the other bombing of nuclear facilities is the worst of both worlds: sitting on the fence, not showing strong leadership, very unclear.
He continued: “If I am confused on what his position is, I wonder what the public thinks.”
Cartlidge said that he believes Iran’s nuclear program “is a profound threat to the world and to ourselves” and that his party supports the US.
Two more unmanned drones heading toward British base in Cyprus shot down
Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a spokesman for the government of Cyprus, posted on X on Monday that two unmanned aerial drones heading toward the RAF Akrotiri base have been shot down.
The British base was struck by an unmanned drone overnight that caused no casualties and limited damage. Shortly after the hit, Keir Starmer announced that the UK would allow the US use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites.
Keir Starmer is receiving a fair amount of criticism from the left and the right over his handling of the conflict in the Middle East.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called Starmer’s decision to allow British bases to be used in war against Iran “a catastrophic and historic mistake” that “jeopardises the safety of us all.”
“Allowing British bases to be used in an illegal war of aggression is a catastrophic and historic mistake. Britain has been dragged into another war because our Prime Minister would rather appease Donald Trump than stand up for international law. War is not a game. This shameful decision makes Britain complicit in the devastating consequences ahead – and jeopardises the safety of us all.”
Allowing British bases to be used in an illegal war of aggression is a catastrophic and historic mistake.
Britain has been dragged into another war because our Prime Minister would rather appease Donald Trump than stand up for international law.
War is not a game. This…
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 2, 2026
Meanwhile, opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has accused the Labour government of being too scared in the wake of last week’s by-election to voice support for the actions of the US and Israel.
“Iran’s regime has funded international terrorism, attacked British nationals, brutally repressed its own citizens calling for freedom and continues to try and develop a nuclear weapon. It should not be beyond our government to say they welcome the US-Israel taking action,” Badenoch posted on X.
Nigel Farage on Monday said Starmer’s position on the conflict as “pathetic”.
The Prime Minister was threatening not just Britain’s special relationship with the US but also with NATO, the Reform UK leader said.
Cyprus ‘does not intend to be part of any military operation’, Cypriot president says
More details are coming out about the drone that struck the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus overnight.
Officials believe the drone, which hit at about midnight local time, was launched before Keir Starmer announced the UK would allow the US to use its airbases to bomb Iranian missile sites, but it had not yet been publicly determined from where the drone was launched. It is believed that the drone caused no casualties and only limited damage.
NEW: MoD assessment is that the drone attack on Akrotiri base in Cyprus last night was launched before the PM’s statement – ie was not a retaliation for it.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) March 2, 2026
Anti-drone measures had been stepped up at the base, the Ministry of Defence said, and family members of British military personnel have been asked leave to leave the base for their own safety. Residents in the vicinity of the base have been advised by the British base’s administration to shelter in place until further notice “following a suspected drone impact”.
The president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Monday morning made clear his country’s position in the conflict.
“I want to be clear: our country does not participate in any way and does not intend to be part of any military operation,” Christodoulides said in a statement.
More here:
Starmer faces greater quandary over ‘special relationship’ after Iran attack
Rowena Mason
It was perhaps naive of No 10 ever to position Keir Starmer as a “Donald Trump whisperer” capable of persuading the unpredictable US president to step back from reckless decisions.
The “special relationship” has been under severe strain in recent months over the UK’s decision to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and the refusal of European countries to back Trump’s play for Greenland.
When it came to bombing Iran and assassinating its leader, Starmer appears to have had little influence on Trump, who went ahead regardless of the UK’s refusal to let the US use its military bases.
The prime minister now finds himself in the diplomatically precarious position of declining to endorse the strikes – which have won support from Canada and Australia – but also refusing to condemn them as many in his party would like to see him do.
‘The UK is not at war’: Middle East minister
Middle East minister Hamish Falconer made clear on BBC Scotland that while an “unmanned drone” had hit the runway at RAF Akrotiri, “the UK is not at war”, PA reports.
“Let me be really clear, the UK took a deliberate decision not to be part of the first wave of strikes conducted by the United States and Israeli governments,” Falconer said.
“But in the face of reckless attacks from Iran on a whole range of allies in the region – those are Gulf allies in which there are many, many UK nationals, probably 300,000 – … we took the decision, as the prime minister announced last night, to support the US’s request to use our bases in order to conduct defensive actions.
“There are ballistic missile launches in Iran, pointed at the Gulf and it is vital that those missile launches are taken out in the face of these completely reckless attacks.”
‘Simply not true’ that UK is being pulled into escalating Iran conflict, Cooper says
When asked on Sky News if the UK was being dragged into another Iraq-style conflict in the Middle East, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said: “That’s simply not true.”
“We took a very specific decision not to provide support for strikes that were taking place over this weekend. We have been clear that we believe there should be a diplomatic process, negotiations process,” Cooper said.
Read more here:
RAF airbase in Cyprus hit as Cooper defends decision to allow US to use UK bases for Iran strikes
Good morning and welcome to today’s live coverage.
Just hours after Keir Starmer said that the UK has allowed the US use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus was hit by a suspected drone strike.
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, who has been making the rounds on the morning shows, confirmed the strike on the Akrotiri base but did not provide any more details. Cypriot authorities and the Ministry of Defence have said that there were no casualties and limited damage.
On BBC Breakfast, Cooper defended the decision to allow the US to use UK military bases, saying that the decision was purely “about defensive action around the Gulf.”
“We made a deliberate decision to not provide support for the US strikes that have been taking place over the weekend. We have continued to take the view that we wanted to see diplomatic progress and negotiated agreement around this threat from Iranian nuclear weapons,” Cooper said.
“But we also now face the situation where there are 300,00 estimated British citizens in other Gulf countries that are being targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.
“That is why we are providing support for defensive action. It’s important to say that the UK is not going to be involved directly in those strikes, but are providing support. This is about ballistic missiles and launches that are pointed at the Gulf. It is only about defensive action around the Gulf. It is not about support for any political or economic or broader infrastructure targets. There’s a clear difference there.”
For the latest on the Middle East, please follow The Guardian’s live coverage here.
Cooper fielded a number of questions about possible evacuation plans for the Britons in Gulf countries that are being hit. She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that they are working with the airlines, travel companies and local governments and are sending out rapid deployment teams to provide support for Britons in the region, some of whom are unable to return to the UK because of closed airspace and grounded flights. She said 102,000 British nationals have registered their presence in the region.
“We’re saying to people, the most important thing at the moment is to follow the local advice, which in most places is around sheltering in place, and we are sending out rapid deployment teams to the region to work with the travel industry, to work with local governments as well, to make sure that citizens can get support,” Cooper said on Sky News.
“Of course, we want people to get safely home as swiftly as possible.”
