The Iran attack has no clear motive or end game, and atrocities are happening. Our Writer at Large asks: how can anyone who says they are a British patriot want us involved?

Keir Starmer is an unreliable man. He has backtracked repeatedly throughout his tenure. The u-turn is the abiding symbol of his premiership. So, we can only hope the Prime Minister summons the courage and character to stick to his position on the American-Israeli war against Iran.

Starmer has chosen not to enter the war, in accordance with the views of most voters. The UK Government has rejected offensive action, said it will adopt a defensive posture, and stated it doesn’t believe in “regime change from the skies”. Starmer has, though, granted America permission to use British bases for defensive purposes. In return, Trump insulted both Starmer and Britain.

Britain should have refused permission and condemned the war as illegal, as Spain did. The Trump administration has given no clear reason for the attack. Last year, Donald Trump claimed Iran’s nuclear capabilities were “obliterated”. How can something be obliterated twice?

Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal. So if there was a current nuclear threat then Trump is to blame. We’ve been hearing about Tehran getting nuclear weapons since I was a child.

Then America claimed Iran was about to launch a pre-emptive strike and so had to be attacked. Later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was Israel intending to strike first and so action had to be taken before Iran retaliated. So what’s true – if anything? Was Iran going to hit first or Israel? And if it was Israel, why not stop their attack rather than join it?

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Trump talked of Iranians rising up and overthrowing their government. How do civilians defeat a despotic regime? Why would Iranians trust America after it fled Afghanistan leaving the people who fought alongside them to the Taliban?

There was no attempt to "sell" this war to Americans, America’s allies or the world. At least during the build-up to the Iraq War, America and Britain tried to make a case, albeit one based on lies. Today, allies are meant to blindly follow where America commands. And where does that lead? To the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school. More civilian deaths, more atrocities.

Pete Hegseth, the man who restyled his job as secretary of war rather than defence, crows about rejecting “stupid rules of engagement”. Tell that to the parents of dead schoolgirls.

He gloats over Iranian sailors dying, and glorifies “punching” enemies “while they’re down”.

Meanwhile, the White House puts out social media posts of bombings which seem to come from the fevered mind of an adolescent incel.

Nor is there any clear mission or end game. What exactly is the goal? All war is irrational. This war is psychopathic, driven by barbarism and imperialism. Why should British troops risk their lives for an absurd and potential apocalyptic war which appears to serve only bloodlust?

Why would the British government trust anything that Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu say?

Indeed, many find it hard to shake the suspicion that this war is conveniently timed to distract from the Epstein scandal. A few days before the attack on Iran, National Public Radio in America reported that the US Justice Department withheld Epstein files related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor. Then just days ago, amid war, the FBI released documents summarising interviews with a woman who claimed she was sexually assault by Trump. The Department of Justice insisted it had mistakenly withheld the files. The Democrats claimed cover-up. Some opponents of the Trump administration call the attack on Iran the "Epstein War".

Yet Nigel Farage and his Reform Party and Kemi Badenoch’s Tories are desperate for Britain to fall into step behind America. They are backed by the entire British right-wing media – the same newspapers and commentators who cheerled for the disaster of the Iraq War.

The fact that Tony Blair rebuked Starmer for not backing Trump tells you all you need to know about the moral choices this war offers.

Farage and Badenoch claim they are patriots, yet they emulate Blair’s desire to make Britain America’s vassal. The best decision Starmer ever took was putting distance between himself and Trump on Iran. It won him a smidgen of respect from an electorate who otherwise hold him in contempt. Starmer, at least, appeared to get off one knee.

Farage squawked endlessly about sovereignty during his destructive Brexit campaign. Now he seems very keen not only on bad-mouthing his own country to a foreign power, but to do all he can to make sure Britain throws sovereignty away in obeisance to Trump.

Kemi Badenoch wants Britain to fall into step behind America (Image: Getty)

And for what purpose? To add another illegal war to Britain’s count? To crash the economy even further as combatants in a conflict which is upending global finances and already undermining living standards for British citizens?

Starmer’s decision to say no to Trump will be the only good mark against his name in the history books. If he u-turns and takes us into this conflict he will assuredly be remembered as the most squalid, pathetic man to ever lead this country: a Prime Minister who sold out Britain because he was scared of a President who appears increasingly at odds with sanity as each day passes.

The war matters in Scotland too. First Minister John Swinney says he would consider banning US military flights from Prestwick if it emerged the airport was being used to support offensive operations in Iran. He shouldn’t wait. Morality and the law demands the closure of Prestwick to all US military flights. We have history here. Scottish airports were used as part of the CIA’s "extraordinary rendition" programme. Extraordinary rendition is simply a grotesque euphemism for kidnapping terror suspects and spiriting them away to black-site prisons where they could be subjected to torture.

America is not Britain’s friend any more – if it ever was. The country which strolled late into two world wars while Britain had its back to the wall demands that we pad along behind them puppy-style whenever they click their fingers, without even an explanation. To hell with America for that, and to hell with its filthy war, and to hell with those Brits who would betray our national interests in their bid to grovel at the feet of a wannabe global tyrant.

Neil Mackay is The Herald’s Writer at Large. He’s a multi-award winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, extremism, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics

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