LONDON — Keir Starmer is establishing a Brexit-style “Middle East response committee” to overhaul how Britain deals with the Iran conflict.
The U.K. prime minister will chair the group for the first time Tuesday in an effort to create a central structure underpinning Britain’s international and domestic response and developing policy, said a U.K. government official not authorized to speak publicly.
It will comprise two groups, one ministerial and one at official level, and is designed to echo the ministerial groups that dealt with the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and prepared for the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. They had powers to consult across the government machine on overlapping areas of responsibility.
The official said the group will focus on medium-term scenario planning over the coming weeks and months, starting with efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Treasury officials are braced for a surge in the cost of living, while experts have warned Britain could face shortages of jet fuel in future.
Downing Street has not yet set out the new committee’s membership, although further details are expected to be published later on Tuesday. Meetings of the government’s emergency COBR committee will continue in parallel.
Some officials had voiced concerns to POLITICO about the extent to which Starmer’s foreign policy thinking relies on one man, National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell. He is simultaneously the PM’s foreign policy adviser and travels abroad to negotiate on Starmer’s behalf.
One Whitehall official, granted anonymity to speak frankly, said: “No one is bringing our priorities together in a distinct way or managing people going up against each other.”
Esther Webber contributed reporting.
