Andy Burnham reveals 'strong indication Iran played part' in RAF Fairford incident
Andy Burnham has revealed there are “strong indications” Iran played a part in a major security incident at RAF Fairford.
The Prime Minister confirmed the incident remains the subject of an ongoing police investigation after five men were arrested on suspicion of preparing to carry out a terrorist attack.
Speaking to GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Mr Burnham said: “What I can say is that there are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend.
“It is, though, still an ongoing and very serious police investigation.
“So I hope you’ll understand that I don’t say more at this point, but I wanted to confirm what we can say.
“This will continue now. It’s obviously a very serious investigation involving our colleagues in the United States, and we are working very closely with them.”
He added: “I will say more when I can. Obviously, I’ve been dealing with this while I’ve been here in Liverpool.
“We have held a Cobra meeting here during the week. We are completely on top of things, but we will say more when we can.”
Mr Burnham updated GB News viewers about the incident in Gloucestershire after all five men were released on bail.
The men, who are all UK nationals in their 20s from London, were discovered near the airbase in the early hours of Sunday morning.
A local farmer is believed to have sparked the investigation after spotting the men behaving suspiciously near the airbase.
Separate reports have suggested one of the men called 999 himself before the arrests were made.
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Police have continued to appeal for information from anyone who saw suspicious activity around RAF Fairford in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Police were alerted to suspicious activity involving three vehicles travelling towards RAF Fairford.
A major incident was declared and around 85 households were evacuated from the surrounding area while specialist officers carried out searches.
Bomb disposal experts were deployed to examine the vehicles and surrounding area, but no explosives were found.
Counter-terror police have confirmed a quantity of petrol or accelerant was recovered during the operation, while the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident remains ongoing.
US President Donald Trump also spoke out about the incident, claiming the suspects had been under investigation for some time.
He claimed the US had been working closely with British authorities and the operation had prevented the men from causing “big damage” to the base.
Mr Trump said: “Working with Britain, it was an amazing job… we had them under investigation... they were looking to do big damage to our fort.”
Marco Rubio, who serves as Mr Trump's Secretary of State, also claimed the incident "clearly" involved the "hands of a foreign actor".
RAF Fairford is a key US military base in Britain and has been used to support American strategic bomber operations.
The Gloucestershire airbase proved particularly significant amid the US conflict with Iran.
However, Tehran has strongly denied any involvement in the incident.
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