Lord Redwood: Starmer misread the situation in the Middle East
LORD Redwood has said Sir Keir Starmer did not understand that Iran was going to regard the UK as an enemy whether or not it was involved in air strikes.
Speaking on GB News, he said: “The UK doesn’t have to join America in all her wars. We stayed out of the Vietnam War throughout that long, very bitter war, which didn’t have a happy ending.
“But the Viet Cong, the main protagonists against America, were not firing on British people and British interests to drag us in.
“What Starmer misread about this was this wasn’t a Vietnam, this was a war where Iran was going to regard us as an enemy, whether Starmer was up for the fight or not.
“And so he let us down, tragically, because he didn’t move the boats and the defensive operations into place in good time, although for weeks beforehand, the press knew what was likely to happen. They must have had good intelligence from the United States of America.
“So he didn’t merely let down our American allies, he let us all down because he wasn’t defending the Cyprus base. He isn’t defending the Middle Eastern trade routes.
“We weren’t even defending our own base in Cyprus where our aircraft are. We also had a drone come into a hangar and do quite a bit of damage and our personnel felt very much under fire.
“Iran is putting us in the war, and we weren’t prepared for it. We didn’t send the destroyer on time. The destroyer has better techniques for dealing with incoming airborne threats.
“We withdrew our minesweepers. Why take those away? Why did we withdraw the capability for dealing with some of them? And why have we only sent eight people with an experimental idea when we need a rather bigger reaction? Because it does matter, clearing that place of mines.
“Our boats should be there in case they are needed to help our allies. They would have American air cover, that’s the point.
“That’s what the Prime Minister misjudged. He seemed to think we could stay out of this. The issue, how do we best defend our people? And he didn’t do a good job on that to start with.”
