LONDON (Reuters) -British security ties with the United States are as strong as ever, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said on Tuesday in response to the mistaken disclosure to a journalist of a conversation about U.S. military action in Yemen.
Rayner said it was up to the United States to clarify mistakenly shared remarks between senior U.S. officials about European allies being freeloaders, but was keen to play down any impact on the two countries’ ties.
“Our relationship between the UK and the U.S. has been a very productive, long-standing relationship. We have very close ties, and we continue to do so,” Rayner told BBC radio.
A journalist was mistakenly included in a group chat on the Signal messaging service among U.S. officials discussing plans for the United States to strike Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group. In the chat, a person identified as U.S. Vice President JD Vance wrote: “I just hate bailing Europe out again”.
In reply, a person identified as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth replied: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
Pressed to respond to those remarks, Rayner said: “People say things in private messaging, and it’s for the vice president to decide and to clarify what he means by those conversations.”
“We’ve been sharing intelligence and information for many decades, and we continue to do that through our secure networks. It is for the U.S. … to explain and decide what they’re doing in regards to their security and that Signal messaging group.”
Earlier, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government was confident any communication of British intelligence with the U.S. would not be leaked.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Sachin RavikumarWriting by Elizabeth Piper Editing by Sarah Young and Peter Graff)
