Kemi Badenoch claims Labour is “nothing like the patriotic party of yesteryear” and “playing student politics” over the Iran war.
In a speech at the Conservative spring conference in Harrogate today, the Tory leader will accuse the prime minister of “sitting on the fence” while the rest of the world rearms.
“I never thought I would see the day when Britain’s allies felt that they could not rely on us,” she will say. “This week, they have described us as weak. They’ve accused us of deserting them, of going missing in action.
“They have watched Britain refusing to send reinforcements to defend our military bases in the Mediterranean. The US, Greece and France have all sent ships. Ours is stuck in Portsmouth Harbour, apparently because of a union dispute.”
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In her most scathing attack on the PM yet on Iran, she will continue: “Everyone remembers the mistakes of the Iraq war. Nobody is suggesting we should drop bombs without a second thought.
“But Keir Starmer spent days consulting lawyers and plucking up the courage to say whose side he was on, even though our allies had the moral clarity to do so immediately and unequivocally.
“Even now, he is sitting on the fence, still deciding what our role is going to be in this war. We are in this war whether Keir Starmer likes it or not. It’s time to act.
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“He is a political hostage. Held at the behest of a load of half-rate left-wing MPs, none of whom grasp the seriousness of the world that Britain is now in.
“While the rest of the world rearms, they are playing student politics.
“Today’s Labour Party is nothing like the patriotic Labour Party of yesteryear.
“In the 1950s, Nye Bevan warned about Britain not having a nuclear deterrent, he described it as the UK being sent naked into the conference chamber. Well today, it’s happening again.”
Labour’s armed forces minister Al Carns has hit back angrily, declaring: “Trying to score cheap political points off the back of a serious security situation is deeply irresponsible.
“This situation is above politics and requires calm collective decision making – not hyperbole and soundbites. British troops are doing an amazing job and no one should be questioning their commitment or competency.
“Serious times require serious politics, not political point scoring on the back of our Armed Forces, civil service or MoD personnel who are doing an amazing job.”
