Badenoch says UK is ‘in this war whether Starmer likes it or not’

Kemi Badenoch has said the Prime Minister is “too scared to make foreign interventions” and that the UK is “in this war whether Keir Starmer likes it or not”.

Speaking at the Conservative Party’s spring conference in Harrogate, Mrs Badenoch said the Prime Minister was “sitting on the fence” when it comes to the conflict in the Middle East.

The Tory leader said last week’s by-election won by the Greens has “spooked” the Labour Party.

“Now Keir Starmer is too scared to make foreign interventions for fear of upsetting a tiny section of that electorate.

“Everyone remembers the mistakes of the Iraq War, nobody sensible is suggesting that we should drop bombs without a second thought.

“But Keir Starmer spent days consulting lawyers, plucking up the courage to say whose side he was on.

“Canada and Australia had the moral clarity to do so immediately and unequivocally. Even now, our Prime Minister is sitting on the fence. We are in this war, whether Keir Starmer likes it or not.”

Mrs Badenoch has called on the Government to authorise the RAF to strike Iran’s missile launch sites, which Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy suggested on Friday was a possibility.

It comes after a row erupted over Mrs Badenoch’s suggestion that the UK military had been “just hanging around” and not taking the necessary action in the Middle East.

Asked whether she supported firing on Iranian missile bases, she told BBC Breakfast on Friday: “What else are our jets doing, just hanging around there?

“They need to be able to see who is attacking us and stop them from firing at British soldiers or even British people in hotels.”

Defence Secretary John Healey said the remark “insults the men and women of our armed forces” and that she should apologise.

Recent polling suggests that the most common view among the British public is that the UK’s stance in the conflict should be purely defensive.

In her speech, the Conservative Party leader also criticised Reform UK, saying of Nigel Farage’s party: “Reform are not serious people and not going to solve your problems.”

She also criticised the Greens for wanting to “scrap our nuclear deterrent”, saying: “The Green Party leader only wants to make two things bigger, and neither of them is our army.”

Mrs Badenoch added: “I have no idea what the Lib Dems think, and I don’t think they do either”.

She also spoke of the Conservative pledge to bring back the two-child benefit cap and put the money raised into defence, and said the Iran conflict would bring an “oil price shock that will play havoc with the economy”.

“We have to drill our own oil and gas now,” she said.