Fourteen dead from RAF-joined Iran strikes
Cooper told MPs the RAF flew 115 combat missions in Iran as the ceasefire collapsed and British food prices climbed.
Fourteen Iranians lay dead and the ceasefire had collapsed when Yvette Cooper told MPs the RAF had flown 115 combat missions in Britain’s war on Iran.
The foreign secretary’s Commons statement on Tuesday came four days after the US launched 140 strikes on Iranian coastal targets, the largest bombardment since June’s short-lived truce. Iran’s health ministry says 14 people were killed and 78 wounded, most of them serving in Iran’s armed forces. Iranian missiles then hit two tankers in Omani waters, killing one crew member, an Indian national, and injuring eight more. Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. Oil prices jumped more than 9%.
Cooper called for “the resumption of a ceasefire and for the United States and Iran to resume negotiations.” She did not withdraw British forces from the war that broke it. She confirmed RAF jets have flown “more than 115 successful engagements” since February, and she described Tehran’s government as an “abhorrent Iranian regime”, the kind of language this paper does not use, because it obscures who is doing what to whom.
War Britain chose: RAF strikes Iran Keir Starmer initially refused Washington’s request to use Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford, telling MPs he did not “believe in regime change from the skies.” Within days he granted the bases anyway. Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves and Shabana Mahmood opposed the decision in cabinet. RAF Typhoons and F-35s have since shot down Iranian drones over Qatar, Iraq and Jordan, and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by an Iranian drone in March. Downing Street calls this defensive. Flying armed jets in support of a US bombing campaign is not defence, it is participation, and 59% of the public told YouGov in March they opposed it.
The bill at home
Brent crude has passed $85 a barrel. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil moves through Hormuz. The Bank of England expects inflation of 3 to 3.5% this quarter on higher energy costs, and the Food and Drink Federation has revised its food inflation forecast to more than 9% by the end of the year, up from 3% in January. Growth forecasts for 2026 have been cut from 1.1% to as low as 0.4%.
Iran fired on shipping and killed a tanker crewman in Omani waters; that is reported plainly, not excused. But the government that told MPs it wanted the ceasefire restored is the same one that gave Washington the bases to break it, and the bill for that decision is landing on British kitchen tables now.
