FORMER Attorney General Suella Braverman has said the UK “has been reduced to an irrelevance” on the world stage.
Speaking on GB News, Braverman said: “There’s a lot of idealism, and these are really serious decisions. When a government decides to take lethal force or military action, as Attorney General you are sat around that table advising a Prime Minister, Secretary for Defence, Foreign Secretary, liaising with the Americans.
“It is not a decision to be taken lightly. Lives can be lost. However, I really strongly disagree with Keir Starmer’s whole platform here. He says it wasn’t lawful for the United Kingdom to join the US and Israel in their initial strikes.
“That doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, and I can say this, as a former Attorney General, there’s a very strong legal basis, whatever way you look at it, for the UK to have supported our allies originally in their strikes on the Iranian regime, just as our allies, the Canadians and the Australians, found that it would have been lawful to do so.
“They supported the US action. It seems that the UK has taken an extremely cautious and, I’m afraid, weak and humiliating position.
“I think it’s fatal for the special relationship, absolutely. And at times of peril, really, you are forced to choose. Are you going to take the courageous stance and be on the right side of history, or you’re going to balk and shirk your responsibility?
“Keir Starmer has chosen the latter, unfortunately.
“There’s a clear lawful basis for the UK to have joined in the original military action, that being collective or individual self defence. Collective self defence, supporting our ally Israel, which has been on the receiving end of constant military attack by the Iranians, whether it’s in the form of proxies like Hezbollah or Hamas.
“When I was in Israel just two years ago, I saw the rockets raining down over Israel, which were rockets funded by the Iranians. Israel is acting in self-defence.
“Or it could be our own self defence actually, because, as the DG of MI5 has made clear in public, there have been 20 late stage terror attacks which have been Iranian backed, which have thankfully been thwarted by our intelligence and security services.
“So we are facing a threat on UK soil. There are very clear legal basis for action.
“I’m against war. No one wants the loss of life and the tragedy that war entails. However, we cannot respond to brutality, terrorism, invasion and attack with weakness. Winston Churchill would not have beaten the Nazis through the approach that Mothin Ali is suggesting.
“Unfortunately, negotiation doesn’t always work, and when it fails, military action is essential to defend yourself and to defend your allies.
“It’s regrettable that diplomacy fails, but diplomacy has been attempted for over ten years with the Iranians, but they still acted in breach of international agreements. For example, they’re building a nuclear bomb with over 60% of Uranium enrichment.
“They have long range missile capabilities, totally in breach of international negotiation and diplomacy. So they have broken and rode roughshod over the rules of diplomacy. We’re at last resort stage, and that’s where military action is absolutely essential.
“I said last year that the special relationship is dead, and Starmer killed it, and this episode that we’re witnessing this weekend looks like an obituary to the special relationship.
“Ever since Chagos, ever since the real weakness that Starmer has displayed on the international stage, and his real hesitancy towards the foreign policy agenda set by America, really, we have been reduced to an irrelevance, and that is a crying shame.
“The UK should be standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel, with the US, with Australia, with Canada, our allies. Instead, we are wringing our hands. We are prevaricating. We look hesitant, but importantly, we look weak.”
