RAF Fairford: Labour’s deputy leader says ‘I trust our police’ after Trump questions decision to bail suspects – latest updates

A cordon remains in place around three vans which are being examined by counter-terrorism police near RAF Fairford, two days after the incident.

Residents evacuated from about ۸۵ households near the air base were able to return home on Monday. Here are some of the latest images from the scene that have been sent over to us on the newswires:

Iran has previously said it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target. But Iran’s embassy in London yesterday strongly rejected any speculation linking the country to the arrests of the five suspects near RAF Fairford.

The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, has looked into the claims of a possible Iranian link to the alleged RAF Fairford plot. Here is an extract from his analysis:

RAF Fairford is the European home for US air force bombers, essentially an American base on British soil. It has been used by the US in its bombing campaign against Iran, after the former prime minister Keir Starmer agreed to allow American strikes on Iranian missile launch sites in the war Donald Trump started in the spring.

The base has also been a source of explicit interest to Tehran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement on ۲۳ July, as the US carried out a ۱۳th day of consecutive bombing attacks. It said that any bases used by the US to attack Iran, including Fairford, were “legitimate targets”…

Tehran has been trying to step up attacks on targets in the west over the past three years, as fighting in the Middle East has sprawled and expanded after October ۲۰۲۳, and particularly after Trump joined Israel to start a full-scale war on Iran in February. But while its propagandists make heavy threats about British military bases online, Iran’s actual threat is mixed.

Five men arrested over a suspected plot at RAF Fairford have been released on bail as police investigate why they were so close to the airbase in three vans with suspicious material in the back. The five suspects were revealed to be British men, all in their ۲۰s and from London.

Their release on police bail suggests detectives believe it is unlikely they were on the brink of a mass casualty attack by exploding a bomb close to the base, sources said.

An Iranian link is still under investigation, as is whether any of the five were paid to gather in the village of Whelford, two miles from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

An initial examination of the vans led police to suspect they carried explosive materials, with assessments made as to whether they were viable improvised explosive devices. After the suspects’ release on Monday it emerged that no explosive material had been found.

The head of UK counter-terrorism policing, the assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor, said the release of the men on bail did not mean the investigation was over and that they were subject to “stringent conditions”.

The suspects were arrested after a farmer driving home from a party spotted them. She said she believed they were wearing balaclavas and they ran away when her headlights illuminated them. She then called the police.

Donald Trump has suggested the plot was known to the US authorities. But British sources suggested the specific activities of the men were unknown. You can read more here:

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told Fox News last night that it was clear a “foreign actor” had been involved in the suspected plot at RAF Fairford, a British base that houses American bombers that fly missions against Iran.

“I have to be careful, there are some things I cannot say on the air for a lot of different reasons,” he told Fox News’ Hannity programme.

“Suffice it to say, that what happened, what almost happened, what could have happened, in the UK over the weekend, is a very serious situation. It’s one that clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor,” Rubio said, without providing evidence or giving further details.

“We are dealing with elements in the world and in the case of Iran, for example, who have openly threatened to attack American interests globally. We are always going to take that very seriously.”

Rubio said the UK authorities had been “very cooperative” in relation to the “serious incident” and have been “on top of it”.

He said “a lot of people are disturbed” by the fact the five suspects who were arrested on suspicion of terror offences were released on bail on Monday.

The US president, Donald Trump, went further in his comments, telling reporters at the White House he would not have released the suspects on bail. “We know everything about them. We would not have released them,” the president said.

Asked whether the case was linked to Iran, Trump said: “It might be.”

The five suspects – all British nationals from London in their ۲۰s – were arrested in Gloucestershire on Sunday morning on suspicion of explosives offences and preparing an act of terrorism, with an Iranian link a key line of inquiry.

While the head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor, acknowledged there was speculation over whether Iran was behind the incident, he insisted the force was considering “every possible angle”. The investigation is continuing and police are yet to establish a motive.

We are restarting our live coverage of the major incident at RAF Fairford after five British nationals who were arrested over the suspected plot were released on bail yesterday.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, suggested the suspected plot involved the hand of a foreign actor, and both him and the US president, Donald Trump, have expressed concern and surprise at the news that the suspects were released on bail.

Speaking at the Labour party’s conference in Liverpool this morning, Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, refused to provide details on what she said was a live police investigation.

“Bail and those kind of decisions are operational decisions for the police and they are not taken by ministers, and nor should they ever be. And I am very grateful and I trust our police and the judgments that they come to,” she told Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge.

Stay with us as we give you the latest updates on the investigation while enquiries continue.