Strait of Hormuz

Lord Hain Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We need to resolve this with great care, co-ordination and collaboration with our allies and partners. It is complicated. As the noble Lord said, it is directly related to the conflict in Iran. We are where we are and we will do everything that we can, alongside others, to ensure that ships can travel safely through the strait.

[Lord Hain (Lab)]

My Lords, I support the Government’s position on this whole matter. Everybody in this House opposes the barbarous regime in Iran, I imagine. They certainly should do. Trying to engineer regime change by bombing remotely is unlikely to succeed, especially in this situation, but there is a case for self-defence, as the Minister has indicated. Does she agree that collective self-defence is exercised under Article 51 of the UN charter? How is that squared with allowing US bombers to use UK bases?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My noble friend is right about UN Article 51. That has been used for our activities in the region, not just most recently, but against the Houthis, the Iranian proxies in Yemen. To be clear, the use of our bases in Fairford and Diego Garcia that he refers to are about defensive action. We have been very clear about that and that is consistent with our use of Article 51.