{"id":671375,"date":"2026-01-03T15:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671375\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T15:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:03:10","slug":"uks-starmer-says-britain-was-not-involved-in-us-strikes-on-venezuela-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671375\/","title":{"rendered":"UK&#8217;s Starmer says Britain was not involved in US strikes on Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON, Jan 3 (Reuters) &#8211; Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was not involved in the <a data-testid=\"Link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/loud-noises-heard-venezuela-capital-southern-area-without-electricity-2026-01-03\/\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United States&#8217; strikes on Venezuela<\/a> on Saturday and that it was important to uphold international law, and that he wanted to speak to U.S. President Donald Trump and find out exactly what had happened.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said in a post on social media early on Saturday that U.S. forces had captured Venezuela&#8217;s President Nicolas Maduro and removed him from the country while Venezuela&#8217;s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said she did not know Maduro&#8217;s location or if he was still alive.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"promo-box\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf article-body-module__promo-box__hVl8h\"> Sign up  <a data-testid=\"Link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/uks-starmer-says-britain-was-not-involved-us-strikes-venezuela-2026-01-03\/undefined?location=article-paragraph&amp;redirectUrl=%2Fworld%2Famericas%2Fuks-starmer-says-britain-was-not-involved-us-strikes-venezuela-2026-01-03%2F\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Asked if he condemned the U.S. action like the leaders of Britain&#8217;s left-leaning Liberal Democrat and Green parties, who both called it unlawful, Starmer said he first wanted to understand exactly what had happened.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s obviously a fast-moving situation and we need to establish all the facts,&#8221; he said in a statement to British broadcasters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to speak to President Trump. I want to speak to allies. I can be absolutely clear that we were not involved &#8230; and I always say and believe we should all uphold international law,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party which is currently highest in the opinion polls, said he believed the U.S. actions broke international law &#8220;but if they make China and Russia think twice, it may be a good thing&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, also said the foreign ministry was working to ensure the roughly 500 British citizens in Venezuela remained safe.<\/p>\n<p>Britain&#8217;s foreign ministry advises against all travel to Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"SignOff\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__extra_small__8Buss body-module__full_width__kCIGb body-module__extra_small_body__Bfz20 sign-off-module__text__LQAMP\">Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Toby Chopra<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Body\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf article-body-module__element__5eCce article-body-module__trust-badge__5mS3f\">Our Standards: <a data-testid=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thomsonreuters.com\/en\/about-us\/trust-principles.html\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__medium__2Rl30 text-module__small__sph8i link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76\">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reutersagency.com\/en\/licensereuterscontent\/?utm_medium=rcom-article-media&amp;utm_campaign=rcom-rcp-lead\" target=\"_blank\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"button-module__link__A3sD0 button-module__secondary__70gBu button-module__round__QDFgq button-module__w_auto__Sem-F\" data-testid=\"LicenceContentButton\" rel=\"noopener\">Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, Jan 3 (Reuters) &#8211; Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was not involved in the United States&#8217;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[124884,748,202019,202020,124879,201812,201806,168730,201809,201814,201807,202036,202037,168735,202038,201810,168728,168722,168734,201808,168723,201815,201813,168732,202033,120873,12920,124890,393,84751,2732,124880,4884,202023,3273,2725,202118,124887,84742,1144,168737,202040,124882,67726,202018,202125,712,202025,16,15,978,30710,202880,1764,771,124883,84750],"class_list":{"0":"post-671375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-amers","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-civ","13":"tag-clj","14":"tag-cwp","15":"tag-destafa","16":"tag-destcsa","17":"tag-destdnp","18":"tag-destg","19":"tag-destgns","20":"tag-destlby","21":"tag-destocatpm","22":"tag-destouktpm","23":"tag-destoustpm","24":"tag-destouswdm","25":"tag-destpge","26":"tag-destpsc","27":"tag-destrast","28":"tag-destrbn","29":"tag-destreulb","30":"tag-destrnp","31":"tag-destrws","32":"tag-destrwsa","33":"tag-destucdptest","34":"tag-destuki","35":"tag-dip","36":"tag-emea","37":"tag-emrg","38":"tag-england","39":"tag-europ","40":"tag-gb","41":"tag-gen","42":"tag-great-britain","43":"tag-hrgt","44":"tag-latam","45":"tag-law","46":"tag-mtvid","47":"tag-namer","48":"tag-news1","49":"tag-northern-ireland","50":"tag-packageus-top-news","51":"tag-packageworld-news","52":"tag-pol","53":"tag-potus","54":"tag-rsbihuman-rights","55":"tag-samer","56":"tag-scotland","57":"tag-secur","58":"tag-uk","59":"tag-united-kingdom","60":"tag-us","61":"tag-ve","62":"tag-vio","63":"tag-wales","64":"tag-war","65":"tag-wash","66":"tag-weu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}