As a foreign policy specialist who deeply admires Britain, it is excruciating to watch Starmer’s Labour destroy it.
Economic vitality, military capacity, cultural confidence, and the integrity of free expression —the attributes that once defined Britain as a serious sovereign power — are being systematically eroded under Keir Starmer’s hapless Government.
The candlelit vigil held in Manchester on 5 March 2026 for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, complete with portraits of the late Supreme Leader, Palestinian flags, and the backing of university Islamic societies, stands as one grim symptom among many.
Watching my mother country hold a candlelit vigil for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is too much to bear. It is not an aberration.
It is what happens when a governing class loses the will to advance and defend the nation’s core interests.
The Manchester event, organised by the Friends of the Islamic Centre of Manchester and supported by Ahlul-Bayt Islamic societies, drew mourners who lit candles and displayed anti-Israel placards while anti-regime protesters waved pre-1979 Iranian flags along with American and Israeli banners. Police kept the groups apart; no major violence ensued.
Yet the optics remain stark: a British city street became the stage for public mourning of a theocratic dictator responsible for decades of terrorism, proxy wars, and the oppression of his own people.
This scene did not materialise in a vacuum. It reflects the choices Labour has made since taking office.
Consider the Government’s defence posture, which has shrunk to the point of strategic embarrassment.
Labour initially refused American requests to use key bases — Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford —for operations against Iran, even when the ask was limited to defensive support for Gulf allies facing retaliation.
Cabinet divisions blocked any early commitment: Ed Miliband, Rachel Reeves, and Yvette Cooper prioritised caution, party sensitivities, and legal restraint over alliance obligations.
Attorney General Richard Hermer’s advice — that pre-emptive action required an imminent threat to Britain — reinforced the hesitation.
Watching my mother country mourn the death of an Islamist tyrant was devastatingly predictable - Lee Cohen | Getty Images
Assets were not positioned forward; HMS Dragon was only ordered to the region twenty days after the initial American outreach.
Gulf partners expressed open fury, questioning Britain’s reliability; Cypriots were incandescent over the withdrawal of capabilities.
Only after Iranian missiles struck civilian targets in Dubai and Bahrain — narrowly missing British personnel — did limited basing approval follow.
Former defence secretaries now describe the handling as pathetic and impotent. President Trump has expressed profound disappointment, marking a rupture in the special relationship unseen in recent memory. The situation is dire.
Cultural and speech freedoms are unevenly applied. While vigils for a tyrant draw official tolerance, critics of mass migration or radical Islamism face swift investigation, online speech restrictions, or accusations of stirring hatred.
Two-tier policing is no longer a fringe claim; it is a widely observed pattern. Economic policy compounds the picture: net-zero targets drive up energy costs, growth stagnates, and high taxation squeezes households and businesses alike.
Labour presents these as pragmatic necessities. They are choices that weaken the country on every front.
How could these outcomes be anything but deliberate? They flow from an ideology that mistakes retreat for sophistication and accommodation for compassion.
Starmer’s administration recoils from the exercise of national power, preferring managerial caution, negotiated de-escalation, and deference to legal advice that precludes decisive action—even as threats gather.
The result is sovereignty erosion by a thousand cuts, forces that deter no one, a culture that apologises for its own values, and streets where symbols of oppression receive more deference than symbols of British resolve.
Geopolitically, Britain stands at a fork. A sovereign post-Brexit nation could leverage the Special Relationship with an America that acts decisively — witness the campaign that ended Khamenei’s rule.
Instead, Britain’s initial refusal to support that campaign, followed by grudging and limited concessions only after allies came under direct fire, has left London isolated and diminished.
Partners who once counted on British reliability now question whether Britain remains a credible ally.
Critics warn that Labour has reduced Britain to a minor European power, stripped of the resolve that once commanded respect.
The cost is measured in lost leverage, reduced deterrence, and a shrinking space for Britain to act in its own interest.
The day of reckoning has arrived. Britain can continue under Labour’s stewardship, accepting deeper degradation until decline becomes irreversible.
Or it can reject this path at the earliest opportunity — choosing different leadership that refuses to let legal caution and party calculus override national interest — and restore the attributes of a serious nation: economic strength, credible defence, cultural assertion, and unapologetic defence of free speech.
The longer the present trajectory endures, the harder reversal becomes. National resolve, not moderation, will decide whether Britain remains Britain.