Sir Keir Starmer has been told to “find a backbone or clear off” as he faces mounting criticism for his changing stance on Iran.
Speaking to GB News, former Defence Secretary Dame Penny Mordaunt declared the Prime Minister is “weak at home and on the world stage”.
Addressing MPs this afternoon, Sir Keir confirmed the UK will “not be joining” the US and Israel in their strikes against Iran in order to “protect our people in the region”.
The statement follows a brutal swipe from Donald Trump’s Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, who accused “traditional allies” of “clutching pearls” in light of the Middle East conflict.
Asked for her verdict on Sir Keir’s approach to Iran, Ms Mordaunt told GB News: “I think what you’re seeing is the difference between nations that are prepared to use their power and have clear objectives and an understanding of what is in their strategic interests, and nations which are still obsessed by process.
“And unfortunately, the UK seems to be in the latter camp at the moment.”
She stressed: “The most important thing is having had the United States embark on this mission, that they are able to see it through, and what I worry about is the regime and it’s proxies will be trying to create as much pressure for the US to end this campaign early and leave part of the regime intact, not allow the Iranian people to step up and make this change.
“And I hope that the Prime Minister has enough guts to recognise that and resist that, and enable the United States to complete its mission.”
Penny Mordaunt has told Keir Starmer to ‘find a backbone or clear off’ as she hit out over his stance on Iran
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PARLIAMENT TV / GB NEWS
Arguing that the Prime Minister is “not doing enough” to bolster Britain’s defences, Ms Mordaunt said: “I have long argued many times on your channel that we need to do much more to bolster our defences, and it’s not enough just to have destroyers and aircraft carriers.
“Unless you have enough budget to provide spare parts, you end up with vessels which should be at sea being in dock in long refits, so we’re not doing enough. Keir Starmer has said that we should be spending more on defence, but he’s yet to do that.”
She made clear: “Our own defence chiefs have given us four years to modernise and transform our armed forces – we know we need to do that, the public know we need to do that, but the Treasury doesn’t start turning on the taps until year five, so that’s a disastrous situation.
“But what I would say is our armed forces still do an incredible job with the capabilities that they have. My thoughts are with them at the moment, particularly in Akrotiri, and they will do us proud, I’m sure, over the coming weeks.”
Sir Keir Starmer has declared that the UK will ‘not join the strikes’ by the US against Iran
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PARLIAMENT TV
Asked by host Tom Harwood what she believes Sir Keir should be doing over the coming days and weeks as the conflict continues, Ms Mordaunt said he needs to have a “long and hard think about what his job is”.
She told GB News: “I would suggest he thinks long and hard about what his job is and the responsibilities he has. I looked at those initial two statements from the Prime Minister and I was trying to figure out what was driving this, and I’m afraid the conclusion I have come to is that it is more about a message he wants to send to his backbenchers than it is a message to our foes and our closest friends and allies.
“In any operation, even if we were doing an operation alongside the US, there will still be particular tasks within that that we choose not to do or that we volunteer for, and that’s because we have different targeting policies, we have different capabilities, and so you will always have those judgements.”
She made clear: “But in this, the UK was always going to have to be adopting at the very least a defensive posture. We were going to have planes in the sky, we were going to be wanting to protect our own interests and most likely interests of our allies in the region.
Ms Mordaunt told GB News that the special relationship between the US is still ‘very strong’
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GB NEWS
“I don’t see why, apart from sending a message to your backbenchers, the Prime Minister made such an issue about the uses of these bases.
“I think it was unnecessary and I think that’s why he did it, and I’m afraid it has sent a terrible message back to our friends in the US at a time when we’re trying to convince them that their investments in Nato and European bases are good value and and should continue.”
Sending a stark warning to the Prime Minister, Ms Mordaunt concluded: “I think the special relationship is still very strong. I see it in our military, I see it in our businesses. I think the special relationship is alive and well and and will continue to do so.
“But I’m afraid the Prime Minister, because he is weak at home, is weak on the international stage too, and that I hate to see for the UK. Keir Starmer either needs to find a backbone and find the guts he needs to do this job that he’s he’s stepped up to do, or he needs to clear off.”