Starmer’s double standards

Sir Keir Starmer’s readiness to do ‘whatever it takes’ to support Ukraine seems to be qualified by his fear of offending the Biden administration. He wants to let Ukraine use British Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia but dares not, for fear of the White House. Surely if the special relationship were really strong, its junior partner would be confident enough to diverge occasionally. Think of Mrs Thatcher saying to George Bush senior, at the time of the first Gulf war, ‘This is no time to go wobbly’. In fact, however, Sir Keir is not even consistent: he is prepared to annoy the United States by making the worthless gesture of an embargo on tiny, selective arms-related sales to Israel, but not on missiles which could work decisively against Vladimir Putin.

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, justifies the mini-embargo on the grounds that, ‘with regret’, he has found ‘there does exist a clear risk that they [the banned exports] might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law’.