Name: 'This is not Grand Theft Auto, these are real lives' - US-Israel war with Iran | BBC Question Time
Uploaded: 2026-03-20T21:49:02.000Z
Duration: 17 min 22 s
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And yet you get the sense from what's coming from the White House as if this is some big game.

Should President Trump accept that attacking Iran was a mistake?

So, so many of you want to talk about what is going on between Iran, Israel and the US and how much we're going to get dragged into it.

So we'll park that for a moment, if you will.

But should President Trump accept that attacking Iran was a mistake?

Well, evidently we think so because we chose not to join in.

And this Prime Minister is one of a very small number of British prime ministers in our history who has chosen not to follow the United States on a big call like this.

So while I have absolutely no doubt about the nature of the Iranian regime, the threat that they pose, the actions of their proxies, there was a process underway that we believed needed more time.

And that's why the Prime Minister made the judgment that he did.

In contrast, we had Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage attack the government in very strident terms in those early days, saying we should have joined the war in Iran, only barely a week later say, actually, no, we shouldn't.

Now, I accept that they have every right to change their mind, but leadership requires two things, judgment and backbone.

And Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage have shown neither.

In this instance, The party leader who changed their mind was the Prime Minister, was Keir Starmer.

He was the person who originally said, when President Trump said, could the US Use British air bases, he said no.

And then he changed his mind and said, oh, yes.

After all, he's the one who's been flip flopping, who is weak.

I'm concerned about it for my constituents and for the country because we live in a dangerous world at a time when we need a strong leader.

And at the moment, we have a weak and indecisive leader.

RAF jets need to do more than shoot down missiles and drones.

She also said, we're in this war whether you like it or not.

So the point that Kemi was making there is that we have bases in the Middle east and we have troops There who are being fired at by Iran.

When she said, you need to go to the source, the source was Iran.

So she was suggesting, I assume the RF jets need to do more than shoot down missiles.

They need to go to the source that is Iran.

So, so the point there is Iran is attacking our people.

She's not saying that we need to therefore attack Iran.

So when we're being attacked, she was saying it's not just about intercepting those drones, missiles, it's also about trying to stop them being fired.

So, yes, we should be stopping those missiles being fired at us.

So we should have joined in to stop the missiles being fired.

So she was clear that she, that Keir Starmer should have said to the us, our allies, that we have assets and Iran is an enemy and, and they should use those.

She would not have been for a proactive preemptive attack.

You know, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Let's just be completely clear about this.

She said, just think of the hokey cokey and it all makes sense.

The position this is here was clear from the.

He said we wouldn't join the war, but we would take defensive action.

I was going to explain something I'm not going to suggest.

Clearly a conflict situation is going to be complicated and it's worth spending some time explaining it.

Cameron was not saying that we should be involved in proactive attacks.

What she's saying is when we are being attacked, of course we should do something about that.

Keir Starmer saying we shouldn't be involved.

We have got assets there, we have got troops there and we should be defending them.

And the Prime Minister was clear from the outset we wouldn't join the war in Iran.

But when it comes to protecting our people, our interests and our allies, we would act.

What happened was Kenny Badenot chose to use an international conflict to score cheap political points.

She cozied up to Trump, realized it was unpopular and then she pulled back.

That's not leadership, that's game playing in the middle of an international crisis.

But the fact is, how we got a battleship, a navy ship, a destroyer in the Middle east, yet they're defending our bases, defending our people out there?

Let me bring other people on the panel, James.

I'm amazed that Keir Starmer is being portrayed as some strong, decisive leader.

He knew that this war was going to happen several days at the very least before it did.

On day one, Nigel Farage said, of course, if called upon, we would allow British bases to be used by American aircraft for refueling.

In fairness, he said a little bit more than that.