Rt Hon Sir John Whittingdale OBE MP

Member of Parliament for Maldon

UK Response to Iran

John Whittingdale Conservative, Maldon

On Saturday, Prime Minister Carney said: “Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.” Why was our Prime Minister not able to make the same statement? Was Prime Minister Carney wrong?

Keir Starmer, The Prime Minister

I am not trying to pick divisions between our allies on this. I was presented with a different scenario: whether we should accede to two requests in relation to action to be taken. That is different and it requires careful consideration of both the lawful basis and the viable plan. That is the basis on which I took the two decisions that fell to me. Different decisions fall to other Prime Ministers.

To watch the full clip of Sir John’s speech please click on the video link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrUgV26m3ps