Aysu Bicer
05 January 2026•Update: 06 January 2026
LONDON
The lack of strong Western condemnation of the US military intervention in Venezuela could encourage China and Russia to take similar actions elsewhere, the chair of the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee warned Monday.
Emily Thornberry said the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US forces and his transfer to the US risked weakening international law and setting a dangerous precedent.
Her remarks followed US military action that resulted in the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. US President Donald Trump later said Washington would assert control over Venezuela for the time being, including through the deployment of US troops if necessary.
Speaking to Times Radio, Thornberry said the absence of a clear and unified response from Western governments could erode global norms.
“There is no legal basis for this,” she said. “And it sets a really bad precedent for countries such as China and Russia, who may also think: ‘Well, we’ve got spheres of influence, why can’t we do things like that within our sphere of influence, like Ukraine or Taiwan?’"
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and members of his frontbench team have so far not condemned the US action.
Starmer on Monday told reporters that it is “for the US to justify the action that it has taken.”
“It is not straightforward. It is complicated,” he added.
Thornberry said that even verbal condemnation from allies could act as a deterrent.
“To a certain extent, the force of international law is that people generally accept that this is the way that you should behave, and if you don’t behave in that way, then there is an international condemnation,” she said. “Although governments always say they don’t care, they do care. They do care a lot, and there just needs to be certain international norms.”
Without such criticism, she warned, the boundaries of acceptable behavior between states could gradually shift.
Thornberry said she was also concerned about what she described as a lack of planning for the aftermath of Maduro’s removal.
While stopping short of directly criticizing Starmer, Thornberry acknowledged the diplomatic pressures facing the government.
“I’m not going to pretend this isn’t difficult, and it is important that we keep a very important ally like America on board,” she said. “We have particularly the interests of Ukraine that we need to consider.”
“But it’s meaningless if we don’t support international law,” she said. “You just can’t go around snatching leaders from different countries, taking them back to your domestic courts and trying them. It will just end in anarchy.”
Another Labor Party lawmaker, Richard Burgon, went further, directly criticizing Starmer in a post on US social media platform X.
“The prime minister is the one who chose to abandon international law over the attack on Venezuela in order to appease Donald Trump. Other ministers are simply following his script. So the prime minister himself should come to Parliament today to explain that appalling decision,” he posted.
Maduro and Flores landed in New York late Saturday and are being held at a detention center in Brooklyn. They face US federal charges tied to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations.
Maduro has denied the accusations, and officials in Venezuela’s capital Caracas have called for the couple’s release.
