Keir Starmer warns opening Hormuz isn’t going to be easy

Keir Starmer warns opening Hormuz isn’t going to be easy LONDON — Keir Starmer warned Monday that opening the Strait of Hormuz is not going to be easy after Donald Trump demanded allies send warships to the region. Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, the U.K. prime minister said he is working with European nations to draw up a “viable” plan to secure the navigation of oil tankers during the war in the Middle East. But the PM said Britain will not be “drawn into the wider war” more than two weeks after the U.S. and Israel first launched strikes on Iran. The U.S. president has appealed to the U.K., China, France, Japan and South Korea to join a “team effort” to secure the chokepoint through which passes a fifth of the world’s oil supply. In an interview with the Financial Times , Trump warned a failure to respond to his request would be “very bad for the future of NATO.” Starmer said the only way to secure stability in the oil market is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — but added: “That is not a simple task.” “So we’re working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible and ease the economic impacts.” Starmer rejected the idea that any plan would be linked to NATO. “Let me be clear, that won’t be, and it’s never envisioned to be, a NATO mission,” he said. The British PM said he is looking at an alliance of partners across Europe, the Gulf and the U.S. The Iran conflict has put the Trump-Starmer relationship under heavy strain after London rejected a White House request to use U.K. bases in the first wave of airstrikes. Starmer told reporters he discussed the Strait with Trump in a 15-minute phone call on Sunday, a discussion which he characterized as being “perfectly good.” Starmer also used the press conference to offer assurances that the U.K. government will provide support in response to spiraling oil prices.