Sir Keir Starmer’s right-hand man refused to say whether the US has broken international law by striking Venezuela and capturing its president.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips it was “for the Americans to set out the legal basis for their operation”.
He also confirmed the UK was not involved and was not informed beforehand.
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However, former Conservative foreign secretary Priti Patel said the UK should “absolutely” have anticipated what was going to happen as “it’s pretty clear that was the direction of travel”.
US airstrikes were carried out across Venezuela in the early hours of Saturday morning, when President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and flown to the US, arriving in New York on Sunday, where they were charged with narco-terrorism.
Mr Trump said on Saturday the US will “run” Venezuela until a “proper transition” can take place.
In the UK government’s first reaction to that, Mr Jones said they are “not entirely clear yet what President Trump meant by those comments” and insisted no assumptions should be made – but said they are “not in favour of colonialism”.
He refused multiple times to say whether the US had violated international law, which several other nations have questioned – including France, Spain, Canada, Germany, as well as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
