Keir Starmer ‘would have been ousted from No10’ if he had joined Trump’s air strikes on Iran – after Ed Miliband ‘led Cabinet resistance’
Keir Starmer would not have survived backing Donald Trump’s Iran strikes, it was claimed today – after Ed Miliband spearheaded Cabinet resistance to the idea.
The PM is engaged in a bitter and increasingly personal row with the US president over Britain’s refusal to allow UK bases to be used.
But a senior Labour MP has insisted Sir Keir ‘didn’t have a choice’ about turning down the request following the by-election humiliation by anti-war Greens in Gorton & Denton.
Sir Keir barely survived a coup last month amid the Mandelson scandal, and has been facing massive pressure to lurch to the Left.
Details have emerged of a bruising discussion at a meeting of the National Security Council last Friday, less than 24 hours before the American-Israeli strikes began.
Mr Miliband – nicknamed ‘Red Ed’ and touted as a replacement leader – Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper are said to have urged Sir Keir to shun the US assault on Iran, pointing to the domestic political situation.
Keir Starmer would not have survived backing Donald Trump’s Iran strikes, it was claimed today – after Ed Miliband spearheaded Cabinet resistance to the idea
Mr Miliband (left) – nicknamed ‘Red Ed’ and touted as a replacement leader – Rachel Reeves (right) and Yvette Cooper are said to have urged Sir Keir to shun the US assault on Iran
Security sources said Mr Miliband took a ‘petulant, pacifist, legalistic and very political approach’ at a meeting of the National Security Council last Friday – the day before the US attack began, and just hours after Labour suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Greens in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
He and Ms Reeves are said to have ‘made it quite difficult for the Prime Minister’, while Ms Cooper adopted the ‘cautious approach of the Foreign Office’.
Mr Trump was incensed by Sir Keir’s initial refusal to let the US use UK bases for the joint attacks with Israel – with the Transatlantic wrangling said to have been going on for weeks.
That was later partially walked back by the PM under huge pressure, with ‘defensive’ actions permitted. There had been warnings that the US could simply use the bases anyway and dare Britain to stop them.
Mr Trump condemned the premier as ‘disappointing’ and ‘no Churchill’ on Tuesday, as the situation became more personal.
But at PMQs yesterday Sir Keir accused Mr Trump of lacking a ‘viable, thought-through plan’.
He said letting the US use UK bases to shoot down drones ‘is the special relationship in action’ but ‘hanging on to President Trump’s latest words is not’.
Labour MP John McDonnell told ITV’s Peston last night that he was not surprised Sir Keir rejected the request from the US.
‘I don’t think he had a choice then… we’d just lost a by-election, crushed in a by-election, we’ve got elections coming up in May in local government,’ the former frontbencher said.
‘I’m not sure whether he would have survived as PM if he’d gone along with Trump automatically.’
The PM’s decision on whether the national interest required the UK to stay close to the US appears to have been influenced by considerations of Labour’s domestic problems.
According to the revelations from the Spectator, the national security discussion came down to the legality of the proposed action and whether ‘a positive relationship with the US was a good thing right now for the party’.
The PM is said to have been on the receiving end of several ‘very angry’ phone calls from Mr Trump over the use of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire to mount bombing raids.
However, sources suggested that legal objections were conveyed to the US days before the final decision.
A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We never comment on the content of National Security Council meetings.
‘The decision had the full support of the Cabinet, including all the members of the National Security Council.’
