The Labor Party accused Kemi Badenoch of scoring “cheap political points” after the Conservative Party leader said Keir Starmer was “too scared” to join attacks on Iran.
Al Carns, the defense minister, said “serious policy” was needed in response to Badenoch’s speech at the party’s spring conference, where he criticized the prime minister’s stance on the US and Israeli attacks on Iran a week ago.
Starmer initially did not allow the United States to use UK RAF bases for the attack and did not take part in the initial military action against Iran, but later said that the RAF would participate in defensive operations. An Iranian drone strike hit an aircraft hangar at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
Badenoch told the Conservatives’ spring conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire: “At a time when Britain needs strong, decisive leadership, we have a prime minister who is too afraid to make the wrong decision, too afraid to make any decision.
“Last week’s by-election has scared the Labor Party. They saw the Greens campaign on sectarian voting lines. A tactic Labor used for many years is now backfiring on them. And now Keir Starmer is too scared to make interventions abroad for fear of upsetting a small section of that electorate.”
In response, Carns, a former Royal Marine, said: “Trying to score cheap political points from a serious security situation is deeply irresponsible. “This situation is above politics and requires calm collective decision-making, not hyperbole or one-liners.
“British troops are doing an incredible job and no one should question their commitment or competence. Serious times require serious politics, not scoring political points on the backs of our armed forces, civil service or (MoD) staff who are doing incredible work.”
Badenoch said Starmer had been wrong when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran last weekend. The attacks killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as other senior figures.
In response, Iran attacked Israel and US allies in the Middle East, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, prompting an evacuation of British citizens.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has since apologized to his Gulf neighbors and said he will no longer attack them unless attacks are launched against Iran from their countries.
Badenoch denied that he was calling for the United Kingdom to join the war uncritically, but criticized Starmer’s apparent inaction. She said: “Everyone remembers the mistakes of the Iraq war. No sensible person is suggesting we should drop bombs without a second thought.
“But Keir Starmer spent days consulting lawyers, mustering the courage to say which side he was on. Canada and Australia have the moral clarity to do so immediately and unequivocally.
“And even now, our Prime Minister is undecided. We are in this war, whether Keir Starmer likes it or not.”
Badenoch, whose party finished fourth in the Gorton and Denton by-election and trails Labor and Reform UK in national polls, also said his party would rewrite the Mental Health Act so that people deemed a risk to the public would be detained.
He referenced the case of Valdo Calocane, who killed three people in Nottingham in June 2023. “We are going to arrest people who pose a risk to the public, keeping them safe, keeping the public safe. We cannot have dangerous men running around our towns and cities stabbing people.”
The Conservative leader also said she would clamp down on anti-social behaviour, including introducing new immediate justice community sentences for “low-level offences”. It would force criminals to repair damage at the scene instead of going to court. Badenoch mentioned graffiti as an area that could fall into it.
