SHADOW Defence Minister Mark Francois said that Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on Iran in the House of Commons proves he is “a lawyer and not a leader”.
He told GB News: “His statement in the House of Commons proved, yet again, he is a lawyer and not a leader. The United States are very, very angry that we did not allow them to use the runway of Diego Garcia for the initial strikes.
“The Secretary of War…said that because we hadn’t given that approval, some of those missions had to be flown from the continental United States. He’s probably talking about the B-2 bomber, which is based in the Midwest. It was a 37-hour mission, whereas from Diego Garcia, it would have been a fraction of that.
“So Trump has said it took far too long for the Prime Minister to change his mind, and also that he is, in his words, very disappointed with the United Kingdom.
“Now, America is our staunchest ally. There are all these debates about whether we can keep them committed to NATO, we fought alongside the Americans in Iraq. We fought alongside them in Afghanistan, because the Prime Minister has done this, there is now a chance that Trump will completely veto the Chagos deal, because the Americans have a legal copper-bottomed veto.
“One good thing that might come out of this is that Trump now kills the whole bonkers Chagos deal.
“I believe that the American action was legal under international law. Our Shadow Attorney General, Lord Wolfson KC, as opposed to Labour’s Attorney General Richard Hermer KC, has produced a completely different analysis of the question. So you’ve now got two, quote, eminent KCs, arguing fine points of law.
“Let me put it like this, Iran is responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. They gave the Taliban that IED technology that they used to blow up so many British soldiers.”
He added: “We cannot put international security at risk because of the internal machinations of the Labour Party and because they just got thumped in a by-election by the greens…and Labour backbenchers are now running scared. Meanwhile, the Iranians helped the Taliban kill British soldiers. Which is more important?”
