Pentagon lambasts ‘hand-wringing, pearl-clutching’ Keir Starmer over US attacks on Iran as Kemi Badenoch says he is ‘scared’ of his own voters
The Pentagon vented its anger on Monday at Keir Starmer, who was “clutching pearls” over US attacks on Iran.
The Prime Minister was accused of undermining Special Relations by banning American bombers from using British bases to launch an attack on Tehran on Saturday.
Sir Keir risked further angering the White House by suggesting the attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader was illegal and ready to be unraveled.
In a blunt intervention, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth praised Israel for its central role in the attack but harshly criticized the legalistic approach taken by Britain and other European allies.
“Israel has clear missions for which we are grateful,” he said. ‘Capable partners are good partners. Unlike many of our traditional partners who wring their hands, clutch their pearls, mutter and whine about the use of force.’
Sir Keir made a partial U-turn on Sunday after Iran attacked civilian targets in the Gulf states and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, saying US jets could fly from British bases for the ‘limited’ aim of destroying Iran’s missile launchers and stockpiles.
He told MPs on Monday that an estimated 300,000 British citizens in the Gulf region were ‘at risk’ as Tehran targeted hotels and airports. However, he refused to go further, saying he would not participate in US-led attempts to achieve ‘regime change from the skies’.
Donald Trump said it ‘took too long’ for the Prime Minister to lift a ban on US forces flying from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands.
Residences in Lotus Square in central Tehran were also damaged in the air attack on the Iranian police headquarters on Sunday.
The Pentagon vented its anger at Keir Starmer (pictured leaving 10 Downing Street) on Monday for his ‘pearl-wrapped’ stance on US attacks on Iran.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (pictured at a news conference on Monday) praised Israel for its central role in the attack but sharply criticized the legalistic approach taken by Britain and other European allies.
Birds fly in the opposite direction of the explosion in Iran’s capital Tehran on Monday as the US and Israelis continue their attacks on the country
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Bourj Al Barajneh in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday
Following the attack by Israel and the United States on a police station in Tehran on Monday
The US President said he was “very disappointed” in Keir’s attempts to cede sovereignty over strategically vital Diego Garcia to Mauritius.
Sir Keir acknowledged Mr Trump had ‘expressed disagreement’ but insisted it was in Britain’s national interest to strictly adhere to international law.
He repeatedly told lawmakers that any military action must have a ‘legal basis’ and a ‘workable thought-out plan’ and suggested the US had neither. Downing Street said the Prime Minister’s determination to support international law was ‘iron clad’.
Kemi Badenoch suggested the Prime Minister was distancing himself from US actions on Iran to avoid further alienating Muslim voters and so-called “progressives” who abandoned Labor for the Greens in last week’s by-election. He accused Sir Keir of trying to appease voters whose ‘political loyalties are influenced by conflicts in the Middle East, not Britain’s national interests’.
‘This is not international law or principle,’ he said. ‘This is pure, partisan, political calculation by a party that has renounced its right to govern our country.’
He added: ‘Why does international law always seem to conflict with our national interests under this Prime Minister?’ The Conservative leader said British people ‘will wonder why our country’s response has been so weak’.
UK Reform Leader Nigel Farage said the Prime Minister’s indecisiveness was ‘pathetic’, adding: ‘Our Prime Minister is not a leader, he is a follower and in everyone’s eyes he looks weak.’
The turn came as follows:
The Prime Minister rallied against the Iraq War in 2003 and declared it illegal. He told MPs on Monday that he was determined to prevent Britain from being dragged into another legally dubious conflict in the Gulf.
‘We all remember Iraq’s mistakes and we have learned those lessons,’ he said.
‘Any action by the UK must always have a legal basis and a workable, well-thought-out plan.
“President Trump expressed his disagreement with our decision not to participate in the initial attacks,” he said. ‘But it is my duty to decide what is in Britain’s national interest, and that is what I have come to think of. I stand behind this.’
Former Tory security minister Tom Tugendhat, who served in the Iraq war, said there was ‘zero comparison’ with the current situation as there were no plans for a land invasion of the UK, but President Trump later said he was ready to ‘put his shoes on the ground’.
Lord Hermer, the Prime Minister’s controversial attorney general, ruled in a prepared legal opinion that the attack on Iran could not be considered self-defence despite the regime’s long history of attacks on the West, including targets in the UK.
