Keir Starmer's inaction on Iran branded Britain's 'worst national humiliation' by Tory peer - 'Disgraceful!'

At a Downing Street press conference on Thursday, the Prime Minister made clear that the "long-standing British position" is the "best way forward for the region and the world is a negotiated settlement with Iran", where they "give up their nuclear ambitions".

He said: "That’s why I took the decision that the UK would not join the initial strikes on Iran by the US and Israel. That decision was deliberate, it was in the national interest, and I stand by it."

Expressing his outrage at Sir Keir, Lord Hannan told GB News that his decision to "sit out" while the US and Israel take action is "extraordinary".

He said: "I think this is our worst national humiliation, at least since the Suez Crisis of 1956, arguably since the fall of Singapore in 1941, but not inflicted either by an ally or by a foe, but by ourselves.

"Either because of our obsession with using international law in this peculiar way, this anti-British anti-sovereignty way that nobody else is doing, not even the leftist governments in Australia and Canada.

"Or because of the fear of offending anti-Israel voters in places like Gorton and Denton, we have decided to sit this out when the Iranians are lobbing ordnance at our positions."

Stressing the importance of the UK's involvement in the conflict, Lord Hannan made clear that the "idea that this is none of our business is absolutely a child's fable", adding it is "disgraceful".

He fumed: "People say, 'what's it got to do with us?' It's the Americans, the Israelis - since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, the ayatollahs regime has violated the sanctity of our embassy in Tehran, has kidnapped and assaulted British citizens, including diplomats, has held hostage British naval personnel and has seized a British tanker.

"There's been at least 15 reported terrorist attempts on our soil. The idea that this is none of our business is absolutely a child's fable, and it is disgraceful.

"We've been given the opportunity to move against this monstrous and murderous regime and to act in our own interests and those of our allies, and we've left ourselves isolated, needy, humiliated and unreliable."

Making clear how influential the Iranian regime is on global Islamism, Lord Hannan argued that it will one day become as significant in world affairs as the "Russian Revolution or the French Revolution".

He explained: "The influence of the Iranian regime on global Islamism is massively understated. When we think about the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, we tend to overstate the first word and to understate the second word.

"But it is a very revolutionary system, and I think it will come to be seen one day like the Russian Revolution or the French Revolution, something that changed everything, that refused to recognise the old rules and that sought to replicate itself, inspiring mimics and sympathisers in other countries, spilling out from behind its borders and attacking the international order."

He recalled: "Remember, the very first thing the mullahs did was to attack the American embassy. It was a way of advertising right from the start. 'Your rules don't apply to us. We don't recognise international law', and they've carried on as they began now.

"They did not invent the idea that you couldn't be a devout Muslim and a loyal citizen of a secular republic, but they massively spread it, and financially and politically they have done immense damage.

"Habituated people who previously had no time at all for that way of thinking to to to that ideology, including, I'm afraid, people in our own country."

Predicting that the fall of the regime will be a "massive victory" for mainstream Islamic voices, Lord Hannan concluded: "So removing that regime, it won't completely kill the idea any more than the fall of the Berlin Wall completely killed communism.

"But it will be a massive victory for mainstream and moderate voices within Islam globally, which is why so many of the Muslim neighbours of Iran are backing this action."