By Deborah Haynes
Publication Date: 2025-11-17 15:18:00
The UK Foreign Secretary has backed her US counterpart in playing down reports that Britain has stopped sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean.
Yvette Cooper He also appeared to express support for Donald Trump’s concerns about drug cartels in Venezuelaalthough he stopped short of supporting possible military action against the government of Nicolas Maduro.
Any decision by the US president to launch attacks against Venezuela would cause a dilemma for the United Kingdom because a small number of British military personnel are serving aboard a US aircraft carrier and at least one of its escort warships which is located in the Caribbean Sea.
John Healey, the defense secretary, said British military personnel would always act within international humanitarian law. However, he declined to offer an opinion on a possible US attack on Venezuela, saying he did not want to comment on hypotheses.
The two senior members of Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet were speaking while visiting HMS Prince of Wales, one of the UK’s two aircraft carriers, which is off the coast of Naples, and on its way back from a nearly eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific.
Ms Cooper was asked to comment on reported reports that the UK had suspended intelligence sharing with the US in relation to suspected Caribbean drug traffickers because it did not want to be complicit in potentially illegal military attacks against them.
He referred to the “long-standing” intelligence and law enforcement frameworks between the UK and its five eye partners, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
“Those frameworks continue. So, of course, intelligence sharing as part of those frameworks continues,” he said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected a CNN report about the gap in intelligence sharing between the United States and the United Kingdom as “a false story.” Photo: AP
Cooper then pointed to comments from Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, who last week dismissed a CNN report about the gap in intelligence sharing between the US and the UK as “a false story”.
The British Foreign Secretary said: “As you know, we do not comment on the details of intelligence matters, but I think you have probably seen that the US Secretary of State has dismissed some of the reports that there have been.”
Would the United Kingdom support action against Venezuela?
Asked what the UK’s position is on possible US military action against Venezuela, he said: “There are issues in terms of stability in Venezuela and support for democracy in Venezuela. There are also issues across the area around the scale of the criminal networks of drug gangs and some of the serious threats we have seen in terms of criminal threats. As well as issues around the stability of the State.”
The Foreign Secretary said the UK was discussing these issues with the US and other international partners.
Defense Secretary John Healey and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper downplayed reports of an intelligence breakdown. Photo: PA
Asked if that meant Britain would support US military action, he said: “We will continue to have international discussions.”
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A small number of British military personnel (in the single digits) are understood to be deployed on the USS Gerald R. Ford, a massive US aircraft carrier, and other warships that are part of the carrier strike group that has been sent towards Venezuela.
The Defense Secretary was asked whether these British personnel would be allowed to participate in any US attack on the country.
He said: “We will ensure, as we always do, that our British military is consistent with international humanitarian law.
“In terms of military and intelligence operations and exchange with the United States, they are our closest security, defense and intelligence partner and will continue to be.”
