Refusal to kowtow to US president has won public backing – and left Badenoch and Farage playing catch-up
It is not often that Keir Starmer’s allies believe he has Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch on the run – but on Iran, they think he is on the right side of history and public opinion.
“It could be the making of him,” said Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, who was first out of the blocks to say she thought Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran were illegal. “You’ve not had a British prime minister say no to an American president since Vietnam. This is a big deal.”
Since the drawn-out disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan, the prospect of helping the US attempt to facilitate regime change in another foreign country has been deeply unpopular with the public.
Starmer has sought a middle ground – refusing to let the US operate from British bases for the initial strikes but later giving it permission to use them for defensive action to destroy Iranian missiles. It has earned him the ire of Trump and public approval in the UK, and has given heart to many within the Labour party who believe he is acting more according to his own political instincts.
