After a British RAF base is bombed by Iran, Starmer can no longer sit on the sidelines, Britain must fully back its allies

Now, the US and Israel have taken matters into their own hands, whether Western allies support this decision or not. In doing so, Israel and the US are defending the entire free world.

In Keir Starmer’s statement on Saturday morning responding to joint US-Israeli strikes on Iranian assets, he described the Iranian Regime as ‘utterly abhorrent’. He would go on to highlight the threat that the regime poses to British national security, noting that in the last 12 months, they have backed more than 20 potentially lethal attacks on UK soil. These include attacks on Britain’s Jewish community, Iranian dissidents, and media outlets.

Just today, Iran fired ballistic missiles towards British military bases in Cyprus. This is the latest in a long timeline of Iranian aggression against Britain.

In 2004, six Marines and two Navy personnel were captured by Iranian forces. In 2011, the British embassy in Tehran was stormed by groups affiliated with the IRGC, forcing staff to flee.

In 2019, we witnessed the seizure of the British-flagged Stena Impero and the hostage-taking of its crew. These often forgotten incidents demonstrate the direct threat posed to Britain at home and abroad, and to those serving our country.

Amid these direct attacks, Iran has also been hurtling towards nuclear capabilities, refusing to give up its ambition of developing nuclear weapons.

The Iranian regime is hell-bent on destruction, and previously described Britain as the ‘most evil of foreign powers’. If they were to develop a nuclear weapon, do we really think we would be spared?

This is before even accounting for the equivalent of billions of pounds that Iran has funnelled into proxy groups that actively seek to undermine and destroy the West.

Lord Beamish, chair of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, warned in 2025 that “Iran has a high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity and its intelligence services are ferociously well-resourced with significant areas of asymmetric strength”. The risk posed by Iran’s leaders is real and tangible.

It is therefore puzzling that Starmer would begin his statement on the latest conflict by asserting Britain played no role in the attacks, and would end it by encouraging the ‘abhorrent’ regime to de-escalate and return to the negotiating table. In the very moments that Starmer talked up negotiations, videos showed Iranian people rejoicing amid rumours that Ayatollah Khameini had met his maker.

Simultaneously to Keir Starmer proudly declaring that Britain was not involved, Macron warned of ‘grave consequences’, and Ursula Von De Leyen said she would convene a committee on Monday - an almost comedic commitment to not working weekends. European leaders are failing to stand alongside their allies, despite the threat Iran poses to us all.

Whilst we can criticise our government for not standing shoulder to shoulder with the US and Israel, one might ask what we could feasibly do anyway - could we even have helped?

In previous allied operations, that answer might have been ‘no’ - Britain was not asked to participate in the 2025 strikes against Iran, and was not briefed ahead of time when Israel targeted Hamas leaders in Qatar - a damning indictment in itself. But in these most recent strikes on Iranian leadership, such is not the case; our allies asked us for support, and Britain refused. Specifically, America sought the use of British airbases as part of their initial operation, but the request was declined. This position was - correctly - reversed two days later, but only after the US had already conducted strikes successfully without our help, our indecision and weakness already made clear.

Embroiled in a myriad of scandals, unable to commit to a consistent policy agenda resulting in U-turn upon U-turn, and entranced by domestic political calculations, Starmer is rendering Britain utterly irrelevant and needlessly weak on the world stage; too limp to meet even the most basic request of an ally, unable or unwilling to respond to the danger that threatens us too.

We are watching the decline of Britain’s strategic value to allies; it is little surprise Israel last year called Britain an unreliable ally, and US Senator Lindsey Graham yesterday lamented, “It is sad to see Western democracies lose their passion for justice and a sense of right and wrong”.

The Iranian regime poses a real and imminent threat to Iranians, to the Middle East, and to Britain, too. Our government has no problem recognising that threat, but it has a great deal of difficulty responding to it, or even assisting when others assume responsibility on our behalf.

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Ben Freeman is the Executive Director of the Pinsker Centre, a think tank focused on international relations and Middle Eastern affairs.

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