Armed Forces Minister refuses seven times to say whether UK backs US military action in Iran
23 June 2025, 08:46 | Updated: 23 June 2025, 10:08
Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard was questioned seven times by Nick Ferrari over whether the UK supports or opposes military action on Iran over the weekend.
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Luke Pollard, Armed Forces Minister, and Labour and Co-op MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, appeared on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.
When asked six times by Nick whether he opposes the action on Iran taken by the US over the weekend, Mr Pollard is unable to provide a definitive answer.
He said: "Iran must not have a nuclear weapon."
"Our focus as a country is on a diplomatic solution now to bring Iran to the table to get them to negotiate a diplomatic off-ramp," Mr Pollard told Nick.
Luke Pollard can't answer Nick's question
On Saturday night, President Donald Trump confirmed three Iranian nuclear sites - Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan - were bombed in a move that has shocked the world.
Amir-Saeid Iravani told an emergency meeting held in New York on Sunday evening that the UK, US, France, Israel and the UN's atomic agency "will bear full responsibility for the death of innocent civilians in Iran, especially women and children, and for destruction of vital civilian infrastructure."
He also slammed the "silence, double standards and complicity" of some Western countries including the UK.
Mr Iravani also said Israel and the US were the chief culprits for eroding the rule of law and undermining international law.
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He said: "From its illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan to its catastrophic intervention to Libya, the United States had ignored the UN Charter, shattered entire societies and destabilised the region for decades.
"The people of these countries continue to pay the price for these reckless policies.
"Madam President, Israeli attack on June 13 and the US aerial strike on June 21 did not occur in vacuum.
"They are a direct result of the illegal and politically motivated actions of the United States and its European partners, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, as well as biassed conduct of the IAEA Director General.
"Undoubtedly the United States, the UK and France - three permanent member of this Council - along with the Israeli regime and the IAEA General Director will bear full responsibility for the death of innocent civilians in Iran, especially women and children, and for destruction of vital civilian infrastructure."
The 'frightening' way Iran could retaliate to Donald Trump's strikes
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the emergency meeting of the Security Council on Sunday.
Mr Guterres described the bombing of the facilities as a "perilous turn in a region that is already reeling from the outset of the crisis."
He added: "I have repeatedly condemned any military escalation in the Middle East.
"The people of the region cannot endure another cycle of destruction."
He called for diplomacy to "prevail".
