Downing Street says ministers approved the expansion after accusing Iran of "reckless strikes".
1 hour ago
Richard Wheelerand
Kate Whannel,political reporters
EPA Shutterstock
The UK has agreed to allow the US to use British bases to launch strikes on Iranian sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously allowed US forces to use the bases only for defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles that put British interests or lives at risk.
Downing Street said on Friday that ministers had approved an expansion of the targets to help protect ships in the vital oil shipping channel, still on the basis of "collective self-defence".
US President Donald Trump said the UK "should have acted a lot faster", while Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed Sir Keir was "putting British lives in danger".
Iran fired two ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia but neither hit the joint US-UK base on the Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean, the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported overnight into Saturday, citing unnamed US officials.
One missile reportedly failed in flight, while the other was intercepted by a US warship. It is unclear when the missiles were fired and the US military declined to comment on the matter.
The UK will still not be directly involved in the US strikes and Downing Street said "the principles behind the UK's approach to the conflict remain the same".
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the decision was the "mother of all U-turns" in a post on X.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Calum Miller said the government's decision showed the UK was "being drawn further and further down Trump's slippery slope".
He called on Sir Keir to allow Parliament to vote on the terms of the agreement with the US for their use of UK bases.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said it was "another worrying escalation" and said MPs "must be given a vote on our involvement".
The UK bases used by the US have been RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.
Trump told reporters of the UK's decision: "It's been a very late response from the UK.
"Surprised because the relationship is so good but this has never happened before. They were really pretty much our first ally all over the world."
The US president earlier called Nato allies "cowards" for refusing to offer warships to facilitate the reopening of the shipping channel and claimed reopening the strait would be a "simple" military task with "little risk".
UK military planners have joined the US Central Command to look at options for getting tankers through the strait, which has been effectively closed by the threat of Iranian attacks in retaliation to a bombing campaign by the US and Israel.
Before the war, about 138 ships passed through the strait each day, carrying a fifth of the global oil supply, according to the Joint Maritime Information Centre.
A Downing Street spokesperson said of Friday's discussions by ministers: "They agreed that Iran's reckless strikes, including on Red Ensign vessels and those of our close allies and Gulf partners, risked pushing the region further into crisis and worsening the economic impact being felt in the UK and around the world.
"They confirmed that the agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes US defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz."
Downing Street added ministers wanted "urgent de-escalation and a swift resolution to the war".
In his account of the call with UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Araghchi said he had also criticised the "negative and biased" approach of the UK and demanded that it cease any co-operation with the US.
The Foreign Office said Cooper had condemned Iran's "reckless attacks" and its "disruption and closure of the Strait of Hormuz".
A spokesperson said she had also called for "an immediate comprehensive moratorium on all attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations".
Araghchi later wrote on X: "Ignoring his own people, Mr Starmer is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran.
"Iran will exercise its right to self-defence."
Two people were reported injured in the strike that appears to be another example of a splitting warhead, which has been posing a challenge for Israel's missile defense shield.
Over 1,000 displaced people from Beit Shemesh were relocated to several hotels across Jerusalem, where they now attempt to piece together fragments of routine amid trauma.
The attack was the first of its kind to use intermediate-range balistic missiles, a Wall Street Journal report said, aiming to reach a remote military base in the Indian Ocean, about 4,000 kilometers from Iran
Japan sources 90 percent of its crude from Middle East and is heavily dependent on exports transiting the key waterway.