In recent years, during moments of international conflict, we’ve become used to the main British political parties calling something of a truce – largely holding off on the partisan attacks for a moment of unity in the name of the national interest.
That’s not been the case this time. The week has seen political hand grenades flying back and forth from both the Conservatives and Labour.
From the outset, the Tories have been heavily critical of what they describe as a “weak” response from the government to the Iran war – from the decision not to support the initial US/Israeli strikes, to the “slow” deployment of reinforcements to the region.
But Labour are hitting back – demanding an apology from Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, for comments she made yesterday about RAF jets “just hanging around”, claiming that without action to reduce Iran’s capability to fire at British bases, the UK is just “catching arrows”.
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The party has pushed out clips of that interview on social media – framing her words as an attack on “our brave RAF pilots” who have been in the skies shooting down Iranian drones.
Defence Secretary John Healey said she had insulted the British military.
Unsurprisingly, Badenoch is refusing to accept this characterisation – and certainly isn’t apologising.
Instead, she’s back on the attack, telling reporters it’s a “disgrace that rather than get a grip and get HMS Dragon out of Portsmouth, our defence secretary is busy criticising me and trying to make it look like I’m criticising our troops. I would never do that”.
She added: “Our troops are brave servicemen and women, and they deserve better than a government that’s too scared to give them the order to take out missile launchers that are sending missiles to our British bases…”
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It’s not a savvy move for any political leader to be seen to be bashing the armed forces, and it’s certainly not what Ms Badenoch intended. But in attacking the government’s military decision-making, it’s the message which came across.
It’s not surprising the government wants to capitalise on any moment of weakness from the Tory leader. Regardless of her own party’s past responsibility, Badenoch has spent all week punching at the damaging bruise of Britain’s apparent lack of preparedness and inability to mobilise at speed, symbolised by HMS Dragon’s continuing presence in Portsmouth Harbour.
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In a scathing speech at the Conservatives’ spring conference in Harrogate on Saturday, she once again hit out at what she called Sir Keir Starmer’s “dither and delay”, claiming allies have accused the UK of “going missing in action” and accusing the PM of being “too afraid to make any decision at all”, a “political hostage” to his “half-rate left-wing MPs… playing student politics”.
It’s an aggressive attack, with Badenoch using the Iran situation to restate her party’s opposition to the Chagos deal and to make the case for welfare cuts to fund further defence spending.
Minister Al Carns has described her speech as “deeply irresponsible” for “trying to score cheap political points off the back of a serious security situation”, arguing “this situation is above politics”.
Clearly, that’s what the government would prefer, but the Tories have far too much ammunition to want to declare any kind of Westminster entente cordiale.
But there is a real question about whether Badenoch is altogether wise to take a more hawkish approach – with polling suggesting the prime minister’s cautious response is actually fairly popular with the British public – or certainly much more so than usual.
