Prime Minister Keir Starmer launched a blistering attack on Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage during a heated Prime Minister's Questions session on Wednesday, accusing both of performing U-turns on their support for US military action in Iran.
Starmer said the UK would 'be at war' now if it were up to the Tory and Reform leaders, highlighting that Badenoch had previously pressed him to launch offensive strikes against Iranian missile bases. 'If I'd asked her last week, her position would be, we support the initial strikes and we want to join the war. This week, she says, we don't want to join the war. That is the mother of all U-turns,' Starmer told MPs.
The Prime Minister also accused Badenoch of insulting RAF personnel after she said they were 'just hanging about' in a BBC interview. He detailed that the RAF had flown over 230 hours of defensive operations across seven countries and shot down multiple drones, adding: 'If she had any decency, she'd get up and she would apologise.'
Badenoch defended herself, saying she had criticised Starmer, not the armed forces. Her spokesperson later argued that the UK was already 'in the war' and that she supported allowing the US to use British bases for initial attacks, as well as UK action in response to attacks on British bases in Cyprus.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey joined the criticism, accusing Badenoch and Farage of being 'Donald Trump's biggest cheerleader' and backing 'costly warmongering'. Starmer agreed, stating: 'Last week, they were urging us to join. If they had been leading the country, we'd be at war.'
