UK to refuel Saudi jets defending Gulf oil infrastructure from Houthis

Andy Burnham has agreed to a Saudi request for air-to-air refuelling of Saudi jets, deploying an RAF Voyager for several weeks in his first military action since becoming prime minister. The support is defensive, aimed at protecting energy infrastructure from Houthi fighters who have advanced to areas near the Bab al-Mandab strait — a waterway Saudi Arabia has used to route oil exports past disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.

The UK already has a Sky Sabre air defence system operating in the region. Burnham framed the refuelling as a cost-of-living measure, saying the UK needs to keep "those pathways open" to ease global economic turmoil that has pushed up inflation and driven government borrowing costs to multi-year highs weeks before his first budget.

The deployment comes ahead of Burnham's first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday, where he plans to press the US president to de-escalate the conflict in Iran. Trump is said to remain angry over the UK's refusal to support his military action there, and tensions persist over defence spending levels.

Burnham told reporters on the flight to the UN General Assembly in New York that he wants to see "an end to the conflict as quickly as possible" and that the UK stands ready to play its part. He warned that "dark clouds of global instability" are directly affecting people's lives, linking the Middle East crisis to domestic economic pressure — a connection he said Keir Starmer had been right to emphasize.

Government sources told the Guardian that Burnham aims to pursue a "third way" with Trump, neither as adversarial as Canadian prime minister Mark Carney nor as publicly deferential as Starmer's early approach. Asked whether he trusts Trump, Burnham said: "Yes, of course, we trust our allies."

Analysts say the balance of risk in the bilateral relationship has shifted since Starmer's tenure, with Republicans facing difficult midterm elections and Trump's personal ratings falling. Trump is also expected to be more focused on his meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping and his own UN address than on the British prime minister.

Burnham's UN speech is expected to center on artificial intelligence, and he will be accompanied by his AI minister, Kanishka Narayan. He plans to tell world leaders that the UK will focus on AI and climate change when it hosts the G20 in Manchester next year — positions that put him at odds with Trump, who has criticized the UK's stance on global warming.