The PM added he would put the question of legal deployment “to this house for a debate beforehand and for a vote on that deployment. That is consistent with recent practice, and I’ll adhere to that.”
Committing troops to war rests in the hands of the prime minister, but there is a precedent to seek approval from MPs. Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair won support from MPs to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“There would only be deployment after a ceasefire,” Starmer insisted. “It would be to support Ukraine’s capabilities, it would be conduct deterrence operations and to construct and protect military hubs.”
He said the debate would mean “all members could know exactly what we’re doing [and] make their points of view,” and a vote was “the proper procedure in a situation such as this.”
Starmer’s spokesperson last year refused to explicitly confirm MPs would have a vote on deployment, stating that would be “getting ahead of ourselves.”