Andy Burnham has warned that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was “almost certainly” behind a suspected terror plot targeting RAF Fairford, escalating tensions between London and Tehran as questions grow over the security of US military assets stationed in Britain.
The Prime Minister told MPs that the Government assessed it was “highly likely” the alleged operation had been coordinated in Iran, raising the prospect of fresh sanctions against Tehran and a tougher crackdown on suspected Iranian-backed criminal networks operating on British soil.
“I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” Burnham said in the Commons.
“We will not tolerate these threats on our soil.”
He added that the Government would use its “full range of powers” to target Iranian-linked networks and their financial resources, alongside further sanctions intended to restrict the capacity of Iran and the IRGC to threaten British interests.
The Iranian ambassador to the UK has been summoned, the Foreign Minister confirmed, as the diplomatic fallout from the suspected plot intensifies.
The allegations follow the arrest last week of five British men on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a strategically important airbase used by the US Air Force as a staging point for long-range bomber operations in Europe.
The arrests have raised fresh concerns over the potential reach of Iranian intelligence and its alleged use of criminal networks to threaten Western military installations. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have previously described the base as a legitimate target.
US President Donald Trump said last week that a threat linked to Iran had prompted American B-1 bombers to be moved from the base. The aircraft had recently been used in US strikes on Iran.
“We had an idea that there might be a threat, and why would I leave them there? It costs very little money to move them,” Trump told reporters on Monday.
“So we had a threat, and if we’re going to be threatened, we just move them, and that sort of alleviates that. And we actually know the people that made the threat.”
Asked whether those behind the threat were linked to Iran, Trump replied: “They would be linked to Iran.”
Vice-President JD Vance also said Washington believed Tehran continued to pose a serious security threat, describing the relocation of the bombers as a precautionary measure.
“We do feel with some confidence that the Iranians are, you know, they’re trying to do what the Iranian state has done for 49 years, which is engaged in acts of terrorism against the United States (and others), so we are being extremely cautious, and that’s all I’d say about that,” Vance told reporters.
However, the US administration has offered differing explanations for the aircraft’s sudden departure. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was no direct link between the suspected Iranian plot and the movement of the bombers, adding that the Pentagon was “constantly reallocating resources where they need to be”.
A Nato military source nevertheless warned that “it is still believed that Iran poses an acute threat to US assets in the UK”.
Significant questions remain unanswered about the arrests, the precise nature of the suspected plot and the evidence underpinning the allegations of Iranian direction.
Tehran has rejected accusations of involvement, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissing the claims as baseless.
Writing on X, Araqchi said: “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
The dispute now presents Britain with a delicate security and diplomatic challenge: responding to what Burnham describes as a potentially state-directed threat while establishing the facts behind an investigation that remains incomplete.
Any further sanctions would add to pressure on Tehran at a time of heightened confrontation between Iran and the US, while the presence of American bomber aircraft at British bases continues to place the UK close to the centre of the wider conflict.
For now, the Government has made its assessment clear. But with Iran denying responsibility and Washington offering differing accounts of the bombers’ relocation, the evidence behind the suspected plot will be central to determining the next steps.
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