Keir Starmer has attacked Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage over their stance on the war in Iran, accusing both of U-turning in their support for Donald Trump.
Facing strident questions from a prime minister, Starmer accused the opposition leader of making the “mother of all U-turns” and furiously trying to backtrack after she on Tuesday denied calling for the UK to join the US president’s war against Iran, having previously said Starmer should do more to “stop the people who are attacking us”.
Last week, Badenoch repeatedly pressed Starmer on his decision not to launch offensive strikes to destroy missile bases, asking: “Why are you asking our allies to do what we should do ourselves?”
On Wednesday, Starmer said: “If you had asked him last week, his position would be: we support the initial attacks and we want to join the war. This week, he says, we don’t want to join the war. That is the mother of all U-turns in the most important decision a prime minister must ever make, whether to commit the UK to war or not.”
To the applause of her own MPs, she added: “She has completely disqualified herself from becoming prime minister, fortunately she never will.”
Starmer told MPs that the UK armed forces were “working day and night to protect British lives and interests in the Middle East”, adding that the RAF had flown more than 230 hours of defensive operations over multiple countries and shot down multiple drones. “We thank you for your bravery and your professionalism,” he said.
He accused Badenoch of insulting UK RAF personnel by saying they were “just hanging around” during an interview with BBC Breakfast on Friday. Speaking in the House of Commons, Starmer said: “Let me tell you what they have been doing: conducting raids on seven of the 10 countries in the region, day and night, fending off incoming attacks, protecting the lives of others while risking their own. If he had any decency, he would stand up and apologise.”
Badenoch said he had never criticized the military, but he had criticized Starmer.
Speaking after PMQs, Badenoch’s spokesman accused Starmer of trying to “completely misrepresent our position”, arguing that the Conservative leader had never argued that the UK should join the war.
Badenoch, he said, had asked that the United Kingdom allow the United States to use British bases for the initial attacks against Iran, and now supported the United Kingdom’s action in response to the attacks on British bases in Cyprus.
When asked if this was not the same as joining the war, he said: “We are at war. The difference is that we are not joining the war. We are at war.”
Asked whether Badenoch understood the aims of the war, the spokeswoman said she did not receive the same intelligence briefings as ministers. When asked how he could support a conflict without knowing its objectives, he added: “We support our allies.”
On Tuesday, Farage said the UK “should not get involved in another foreign war”, in contrast to his previous statement that “the gloves have to be taken off” when it comes to Iran. After the start of the war, the reformist leader spoke out in favor of “regime change” in Iran, telling a press conference in Westminster: “We should do everything we can to support the operation.”
Badenoch used his questions in the House of Commons to repeatedly ask Starmer about petrol prices and why he thought “now is the right time to increase the cost of petrol”.
Starmer denied the government was increasing the cost of petrol and said fuel taxes would remain frozen until September.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said families were seeing petrol prices rise, mortgage rates rise and fixed energy deals become more expensive “all because of a war they didn’t start and don’t support”.
Again criticizing the Tories and Reformists, he said: “The Tory leader has been competing with (Nigel Farage) to be Donald Trump’s biggest cheerleader, and the Prime Minister was right to reject his costly warmongering.”
Starmer said Davey was right and added, referring to Badenoch and Farage: “Last week, they urged us to unite. If they had been leading the country, we would be at war.”
Davey called on Starmer to ensure energy bills “won’t rise by hundreds of pounds” in July, when the next quarterly price cap comes into force in July. Ministers are understood to be thinking about how they could protect consumers, but analysts have said household energy bills could rise by £160 a year from this summer after the war in Iran pushed the UK gas market to a three-year high.
Starmer said he wanted to “reassure households” that the cap would be in place until July. “We are working with the sector and with others and allies to do everything we can to ensure that those energy bills do not increase,” he said. “We are working day and night on that. The most important thing, the most effective thing we can do, is to work with our allies to find a way to de-escalate the situation.”
