Keir Starmer’s dithering over Iran is no diplomatic masterstroke
Those arguing that Starmer has stumbled upon a brilliant strategy when it comes to the war in Iran are wrong. He has damaged Britain’s credibility and left us weaker, says Tom Harwood
Has the Prime Minister blundered into a strategic masterstroke? Could it be that Keir Starmer has had his finger on the pulse of the nation all along? That Labour’s previously embattled leader was one step ahead of his opponents this whole time?
These are the thoughts that have taken hold among a significant section of the commentariat. The comforting words Labour MPs are telling themselves. There’s just one problem: think about it for a single second and you’ll see how nonsensical it all is.
What has actually taken place for Britain over the last 12 days has been nothing short of humiliating. Our base was attacked, our evacuations faltered, our government U-turned, our influence dwindled and we allowed the French to steal a march on us in global power projection.
The British government saw fit to make 2026 the first year since the Armilla Patrol began in 1980 that not a single Royal Navy warship was in the Gulf. And as a consequence of that fateful decision, we are diminished and distrusted.
Despite the significant British assets in the region, despite our duty to our bases and our people, the Prime Minister largely ignored the buildup of American carrier strike groups. No warships were manoeuvred. The Americans reportedly reached out on 11 February to ask about the use of the bases. That gave the Prime Minister 17 days of warning.
Now some are trying to argue that Keir Starmer’s dithering was a good call. That ‘staying out of the war’, whatever that means, was in Britain’s interests. But have we stayed out of the war? What happened thanks to our steadfast inaction? A British base was bombed and British energy prices are rising.
What fundamentally puts the lie to the claimed masterstroke of Britain’s dither and delay is that – despite the Prime Minister’s reported acquiescence to Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper’s call to prevent the use of British bases even for defensive action in his war cabinet – Britain was dragged in anyway.
A 48-hour delay and ensuing U-turn in allowing the use of our bases for defensive purposes did not save those bases from Iran or its proxies. The Iranian regime did not deploy restraint, it attacked countries and bases in the region whether their rhetoric was supportive of the Israeli-American action or not. Keir Starmer later admitted “the drone was launched prior to our announcement” on the use of our bases in the war.
Britain under attack
Attacks on our bases, obviously, should have been foreseen by the Prime Minister. Had we sent a single destroyer to the Mediterranean on time, we could have avoided that symbolic humiliation.
Despite the attack on RAF Akrotiri, this week Emmanuel Macron was the leader who visited Cyprus, not Keir Starmer. Britain maintains two sovereign bases on Cyprus, making up five per cent of the island. France has none. Indeed, Cyprus hasn’t been French since its annexation by the Venetians in 1489.
Perhaps a Jupiterian Macron now sees the whole Mediterranean as his sphere of influence and its islands his protectorates. A power projection that could have been avoided by swifter deployment of a singular Royal Naval vessel.
So what has Keir Starmer’s supposedly masterful position achieved? First, we did not stop the war, no matter how desirable that would have been. Second, we failed to convince the Islamic Republic that we were not involved, as they ordered their proxies to hit us anyway. Third, we estranged our closest defence allies, the Americans, by needlessly quadrupling their bombing raid flight time. Fourth, as a consequence we are today getting less of a hearing from the White House, and have less ability to bring this war to an end. And fifth, we left our people and assets exposed and undefended by what’s left of our own navy.
If that’s a success, I’d hate to see what failure looks like.
Tom Harwood is deputy political editor of GBNews