ONE of the paradoxes of Sir Keir Starmer’s position on war with Iran is that he insisted that Britain must stay defensive but was unprepared to defend British interests and assets from Iran.

How can Starmer insist on the lawfulness of defensiveness and still be defensively unprepared?

For months, Donald Trump has been publicly warning that the US might attack Iran (if Iran does not halt its weaponization of nuclear materials).

Starmer’s administration had a taste of US-Israeli strikes against Iran in June 2025. These lasted 12 days. Iranian retaliation reached into Israel and Syria. Iran did not strike against Britain, but shouldn’t the Government have planned for contingencies where British interests, persons or assets are exposed?

From mid-November war fever was back. Western governments (including the British) publicised intelligence conclusions that Iran is rebuilding its nuclear capacity and accelerating its weaponisation.

Coincidentally, by late December, another wave of domestic protests broke out in Iran, which its government brutally suppressed with the loss of up to 33,000 lives.

Trump warned Iran to halt weaponization and repression. He sent US military reinforcements to the region, including two carrier groups.

On January 19, during the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington DC, Trump said the world would find out ‘over the next, probably, ten days’ whether a meaningful nuclear deal could be reached with Iran. When pressed later, aboard Air Force One, he elaborated: ‘I would think that would be enough time, ten, fifteen days, pretty much maximum.’ He said that if no deal was made ‘bad things’ would happen.

But US forces were not ready within those ten or 15 days.

The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group arrived in the Arabian Sea by January 26. On February 12, Trump ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford (the world’s largest carrier) to the Middle East, with escorts and more than 5,000 additional personnel.

In subsequent days, the US deployed another 150 aircraft (including F-22 Raptors to Israel, F-35s to Jordan), amassing a total of about 300 ready aircraft (land and carrier-based), excluding strategic bombers based outside the region.

Starmer must have known that the attacks were imminent by February 18 when he refused Trump’s request to use Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, as bases for strategic bombers to strike Iran.

Starmer should not have expected his refusal alone to stop Trump. Strategic bombers can use other bases, although the British bases are safer and closer.

On the night of February 27-28, US and Israeli aircraft attacked Iran and Starmer stated that ‘the United Kingdom played no role in these strikes’.

But, he said, given Iranian retaliation against states throughout the Middle East, where more than 300,000 Britons are living or visiting (particularly in the small Gulf Arab states most exposed), ‘we’ve recently taken steps to strengthen’ the ’defensive capabilities’ already in the region.

Surely, if Britain insists on being legally defensive, Britain must be prepared defensively?

Alas, no.

Read More – Keir the Unready betrays British interests in a war everyone else saw coming