Evacuating Lebanon would test Starmer’s mettle

As the security situation in Lebanon deteriorates, the British government is accelerating plans to evacuate its civilians. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has advised British nationals in the country to leave while commercial flights were still operating. It also said that British nationals should have an evacuation plan, and warned that they should ‘not rely on FCDO being able to evacuate you in an emergency’. It is believed there may still be 10,000 British nationals in Lebanon.

As things stand, most major airlines have now cancelled or suspended services to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport, and many of the remaining flights have sold out. Sir Keir Starmer has said bluntly: ‘Now is the time to leave… leave immediately’.

The Defence Secretary John Healey left the Labour party conference in Liverpool early to chair a crisis meeting at the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (a so-called ‘Cobra meeting’) to coordinate the government’s response.