The Labour Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said:
“Iran’s nuclear programme is a grave threat to international security. Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat.The situation in the Middle East remains volatile and stability in the region is a priority. We call on Iran to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis.”
I would have preferred more Churchillian words, but actually for Starmer that is quite robust. I’ve only heard him rise to more resolution when responding to vicious and criminal Facebook posts. So this is quite encouraging.
Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch said:
“By targeting Iran’s nuclear sites, the US has taken decisive action against a regime that fuels global terror and directly threatens the UK. Iranian operatives have plotted murders and attacks on British soil. We should stand firmly with the US and Israel.”
In a pinned post, she extrapolates, beginning with this clear-headed statement of fact:
“Too many politicians treat the world like a student union. Abstract, simplistic and completely disconnected from reality. The world is not a debating club. It is a dangerous place where power matters, where democracy is fragile and where enemies don’t play by the rules.”
This is the sort of statement I wish the Prime Minister had made.
LibDem leader Ed Davey, as one might expect, delivered a wetter version of Keir Starmer’s statement. He said:
“Iran’s nuclear ambitions pose a grave threat to regional stability and global security. That threat can only truly be eliminated through robust diplomacy. Following the US strikes, it is essential that we work to deescalate the conflict and achieve that diplomatic solution.”
This is completely detached from reality. What “diplomatic solution” does he imagine might stop Iran pursuing nuclear weapons when they have invested so much so far in doing so and seem determined to continue? Obama tried this already. Clearly it did not work. I am not sure what carrots or sticks Ed Davey feels he could muster that Barrack Obama could not. Davey seems typical of the modern western liberal: acknowledging something is a threat, but then pretending that there is nothing we can do about it except sigh and resign ourselves to our fates. In a LibDem’s mind, it is unconscionable that we get any blood on our hands, even in the course of stopping a great evil or catastrophe. The day before the Americans joined Israel in taking decisive action, Davey admonished:
“The government needs to publish any legal advice received around involvement in the conflict with Iran. The last thing we need is for the UK to be dragged into another illegal war in the Middle East by the US.”
Reform’s Nigel Farage said:
“Reform UK stands behind the military actions of the USA overnight. Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons, the future of Israel depends on it.”
Pithy, but all that needs to be said, really.
SNP leader and Scottish First Minister, John Swinney said:
“The Middle East conflict has reached an alarmingly greater level of danger after the US attacks on Iran. The conflict must be stopped by a diplomatic solution delivered through the international community. And the U.K. Government must insist on that now.”
This essentially echoes the LibDem position.
His predecessor, Humza Yousaf, took a different tack. Responding to Keir Starmer’s statement, he said:
“An awful statement from the PM, which ignores our collective responsibility to uphold international law. Suporting illegal military action in Iran, and gas-lighting us about an imminent nuclear threat, is hauntingly reminiscent of the lies told in the run up to the Iraq war.”
But he is about as irrelevant now as Starmer’s own predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. For completeness, I suppose we can see what this bonkers old has-been said:
“The illegal attacks on Iran by the United States are reckless beyond belief — and threaten the safety of humankind around the world…. [blah, blah, blah]”
And finally, the far-left party which is a traitor to Britain and to the free world, and whose supporters should be ashamed they voted for these dangerous fools. Green Party (co) Leader Adrian Ramsay said:
“I utterly condemn the reckless attack on Iran by the United States that can only lead to further dangerous conflict in an already volatile region. There is no international legal basis for this unilateral action that poses a serious threat to international peace and security. Our Prime Minister has shamefully decided to echo the rhetoric of Trump and Netanyahu rather than condemn the indefensible aggression of both Israel and the US. Starmer has further implied that it is justifiable for the Iranian regime to be bombed back to the negotiating table.”
His party colleagues are in full agreement. His statement was retweeted by the other co-leader, Carla Denyer, and Green MP Ellie Clowns weighed in with:
“Trump’s attacks on Iran are another hugely dangerous escalation. Unjustified, illegal, provocative; they make the world less safe, not more. The UK must condemn these attacks and make clear it will provide no support.”
Green Party veteran, Caroline Lucas, took Keir Starmer to task. Responding to his statement, she ranted:
“And not one single word of condemnation? They were at the negotiating table before bombs started dropping”
Well, there you have it. There are only three reasons to oppose robust action to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons: you’re an idiot, you’re in the pay of the Iranian state, or you’re so vile and evil and filled with hatred for your own country that you’d support a theocratic dictatorship that mutilates women and executes gays over democratic states.
There seems an obsession with the idea of “escalation” as if that were objectively a bad thing. We escalated the conflict hostilities between Germany and Poland in 1939 – for good reason. Sometimes the democratic world has to stand up for itself.
The country is fast becoming polarised into those who want to save Britian and those would want to destroy it. The Greens seem to be the best party of the latter, so I expect them to make significant electoral gains in the next election as the old parties seem to be rapidly collapsing into irrelevance.
