Burnham sends RAF aircraft to refuel Saudi jets
The refuelling agreement is “time-limited” and will be kept under review, Burnham said, without setting out how long the support would last.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has agreed to send a Royal Air Force aircraft to refuel Saudi jets defending the kingdom against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement.
Burnham told reporters on the flight to New York for the UN General Assembly on 21 September 2026: “We have received a request from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for military support, and on the advice of the defence secretary and the foreign secretary, last night I agreed to that request for defensive air-to-air refuelling.”
That request was granted on the night of 20 September 2026, the evening before those remarks.
The prime minister tied the deployment to economic pressure at home, going back to “the point I made about cost of living pressures and acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region”.
Burnham pointed to Saudi Arabia’s exposure to further attacks and to the need to keep oil pathways open, saying the kingdom “is looking at potential further disruption”.
The deployment is expected to begin within days and will involve a single RAF Voyager aircraft, the Press Association (PA) news agency reported.
The mission will be limited to helping Saudi aircraft defend against drone and missile attacks, rather than supporting strikes against the Houthis.
One of the two ministers Burnham cited, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, was in New York for the same UN General Assembly week.
Miliband delivered a speech on Sudan there on 21 September 2026, according to a transcript published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Burnham is due to meet the US president, Donald Trump in person for the first time during the same visit to New York.