The United States has started using British bases for certain operations against Iran during the Middle East war, the UK’s government announced on Saturday.

Britain’s defense ministry said the US had begun using the military sites for “specific defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles into the region.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer angered US President Donald Trump by initially refusing to have any role in the bombing campaign that Israel and the US launched against Iran on February 28. The campaign seeks to destroy Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities and to enable regime change.

Starmer later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a “specific and limited defensive purpose.” Those bases are Fairford in Gloucestershire, southwestern England, and the British-American Diego Garcia base on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.

A US Air Force B-1 Lancer bomber landed at Fairford on Saturday, an AFP photographer saw. An American C-5 Galaxy plane could also be seen on the runway of the base, as anti-war protesters demonstrated outside.

Trump had said he was “not happy with the UK,” and negatively compared Starmer to Britain’s leader during World War II, saying, “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”

Trump further taunted Starmer with a social media post Saturday night claiming the British premier was “finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East.

“That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer,” wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform. “But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

The UK has only two aircraft carriers, one of which, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, is currently docked in Scotland for repairs. British media speculated Saturday that the second carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, could be deployed to the Mediterranean, after the Ministry of Defense said it was quickening that carrier’s preparedness. No decision has been taken yet, the reports said.

“HMS Prince of Wales has always been on very high readiness and we are increasing the preparedness of the carrier, reducing the time it would take to set sail for any deployment,” a defense ministry spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy’s destroyer HMS Dragon is en route to Cyprus after a sovereign British military base there was hit by an Iranian drone earlier this week.

Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, has defended his initial decision to stay out of the Iran conflict by saying any UK action “must always have a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan.”

He has also insisted that he was right to later change that position because Iran’s retaliation with missiles and drones to the US-Israeli strikes has threatened British interests and allies in the region.

Lawmakers in Starmer’s ruling Labour party remain haunted by former prime minister Tony Blair’s disastrous support for the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

???????????? WATCH: Protesters in London campaign against the war in Iran pic.twitter.com/MSLXYv4sXc — Politics Global (@PolitlcsGlobal) March 7, 2026

???????????? WATCH: Protesters in London campaign against the war in Iran

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— Politics Global (@PolitlcsGlobal) March 7, 2026

A Survation poll of 1,045 Britons published on Friday found that 56 percent of respondents believed Starmer was right not to involve Britain in the initial strikes. Only 27 percent said he was wrong.

Several thousand people, many waving Iranian flags, marched through central London to the US embassy on Saturday to protest against the war.

Some demonstrators waved placards with slogans including “Stop Trump’s Wars” and “Stop Arming Israel.”

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