00:00Welcome back. Let's go straight over to my next guest, ex-British Army Commander Colonel Richard Kemp.
00:06Richard, welcome to the show. If you bear with me, I'd like you to watch this clip, this segment from
00:12Keir Starmer's extraordinary address to the nation just a couple of hours ago. Watch this.
00:17Our number one priority is protecting our people. And that's why long before the US and Israeli action last weekend,
00:29we had already deployed additional military capabilities to the region to defend our interests.
00:35And I want to pay tribute to our brilliant armed forces. Throughout January and February, we were moving defensive assets
00:45to Cyprus and Qatar, fighter jets, air defence missiles, advanced radar and systems to take down drones, to ensure we
00:57were in a heightened state of readiness in advance of any conflict beginning.
01:04When the strikes began on Saturday, we immediately put those jets into the sky on a mission to protect our
01:13people and our allies in the region.
01:16I think, Richard, this is what Donald Trump meant when he said this is no Churchill.
01:23But in that gobbledygook that he was just spewing about how brilliantly he'd prepared for the Middle Eastern conflict, which
01:31is clearly, it's not gaslighting, it's a lie.
01:33He said we deployed, you know, protection to Cyprus.
01:39Now, we have two air bases in Cyprus, a lot of British military personnel, a lot of British citizens live
01:45on Cyprus.
01:46And we know the story this week. For the first part of the week, we were being defended by the
01:53French Navy.
01:54Then the French Navy took a break. In came Greek Navy frigates to protect Cyprus, to protect our military personnel.
02:01And currently, our people are being protected by the Spanish Navy.
02:06How can that man stand there and tell us he's taken every possible precaution to prepare for this?
02:12He's not protecting the people of Cyprus. Other navies are. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
02:20Yeah, I think, I mean, the Royal Navy withdrew its final presence from basically from the Middle East a few
02:28months ago.
02:29And now we have nothing there, even though there was plenty of time.
02:34You know, there was plenty of warning of what was going to happen.
02:37I knew what was going to happen. I'm sure you knew what was going to happen.
02:40Not from intelligence, but from just monitoring what's going on in the world.
02:44There was plenty of time to deploy naval assets into the region again in this situation, which is pretty critical.
02:51It's not just, I mean, yes, he's had combat aircraft to help in the defense of allies in the region.
03:01But the Navy is critical as well.
03:04And we don't have, we have two immense aircraft carriers, which carry a lot of firepower and capability.
03:09And they're sitting in harbor.
03:11And even at the height of the Houthi campaign, when they were attacking international shipping in the Red Sea,
03:17those aircraft carriers were nowhere to be seen.
03:20I think Starmer's biggest problem in all of this is the fact that an Islamic country is being attacked,
03:29an Islamic terrorist country is being attacked by both the U.S. and Israel.
03:34And the U.S. is bad enough from Starmer's perspective and Labor's perspective.
03:38But Israel, that's kind of beyond the pale.
03:41There's no way we could join in or even take any active role in the campaign that Israel is fighting
03:48in.
03:48That would be, in Labor's calculations, that would really undermine their support base,
03:55which is made up to a very large extent of a red-green alliance of anti-Israel voters and anti
04:03-Israel MPs in some cases.
04:05So I think that, you know, that lies beneath everything he's doing.
04:10In other words, he's putting party politics before national security.
04:14Yeah, as Donald Trump said in an interview earlier this week for The Sun newspaper, he called The Sun,
04:21and he said that he felt that Starmer's foreign policy was being dictated by the Muslim vote here in Britain.
04:29I think it's quite clear that is true.
04:32He can't wait to keep stressing to Muslims, well, we're not involved in this conflict.
04:36Now, our allies in the Middle East, around the Mediterranean, who are under fire, Cyprus, Bahrain and the UAE, where
04:47Dubai is,
04:47they've all complained today saying we feel badly let down by Britain.
04:54What do you make of Starmer's being told, obviously, by his left-wing cabinet colleagues that he can't let Donald
05:05Trump use British airbases,
05:08British military facilities to launch strikes on Iran?
05:11That was an abrogation of the special relationship.
05:15We let down our closest, oldest ally and friend, America, and indeed our close old ally, Israel, didn't we?
05:24That was a bad move, wasn't it?
05:27I think it was a despicable move.
05:28And Keir Starmer himself has said that the Iranian regime is a terror regime that threatens the world and threatens
05:38our allies in the Middle East, as well as our own soldiers.
05:41He's also said that we cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear missile, a nuclear bomb.
05:47And it's one thing to say that, and it's yet another thing to sit on your hands and not only
05:55do nothing yourself, but obstruct your allies, your close allies,
05:59in what they're trying to do to bring about the objectives you said need to be achieved.
06:04It's, you know, I go back again to the point, this is party politics dominating well above national interests,
06:12and not just direct national security interests, but also much more wide than that.
06:16I think this has seen severe damage done to this special relationship, which was so important to Britain.
06:23It gave Britain, that relationship gave Britain far greater significance and influence on the world stage than we would have
06:29without it.
06:30And secondly, of course, we have other enemies around the world, some of whom are active and some of whom
06:36will be active.
06:37And our passivity and our, basically, our refusal to defend ourselves and defend our allies encourages them.
06:46Any remaining deterrence that Britain has against our potential and current enemies is basically gone.
06:53And it's not, and I'm not in any way criticising the armed forces, which do a fantastic job and do
06:59what they're told by politicians.
07:02I'm really, my criticism is for the political leadership of this country, which is very, very poor at the moment.
07:08And it looks to me, Richard, and you can tell me as a military man,
07:12but it looks to me that when our Prime Minister, a couple of hours ago, stood and told us, looked
07:16us in the face and said,
07:17we have been seriously preparing for this, it's just not telling the truth.
07:23Now, we've got HMS Dragon, which has been deployed to go to Cyprus and do the job of the British
07:31Navy to protect British citizens and our air bases,
07:35a job that's currently being done by foreign navies, humiliatingly and embarrassingly.
07:40That apparently won't even be ready to set sail until next week.
07:44So it's not going to get there for a fortnight.
07:47When he says, you know, I can assure you we have been preparing for this since January,
07:52it just doesn't look to be true to me.
07:56What's your assessment?
07:58Yeah, I mean, British sovereign territory in Cyprus was attacked by a drone.
08:04Yes, it didn't do a hell of a lot of damage, but nevertheless, an attack,
08:08a deliberate attack on British sovereign territory is something that we can't stand for and we shouldn't stand for.
08:13The last time British sovereign territory came under attack was in 1982 when the Falkland Islands was invaded.
08:20That was obviously a very different situation, but it was the last time it happened.
08:26And within four days, in other words, in the same time frame as the attack took place on sovereign territory
08:32in Cyprus,
08:33and now within four days of the invasion of the Falklands,
08:3840 British ships forming the core of the Royal Navy Task Force set sail from England to go and deal
08:47with the Argentinians.
08:48In four days, 40 ships.
08:49In four days, we haven't even been able to get to put one ship to sea.
08:54And that says a lot both for political preparedness, political and also for the state of our armed forces today,
09:01which have just been so badly degraded, we can't even put one ship to sea immediately.
09:06Yeah, I mean, what's extraordinary about this missile attack?
09:09And I've been saying this, Richard, ever since it happened last weekend.
09:13I said, if we become a nation that allows an enemy to fire missiles at us,
09:18and we do nothing about it, because that's what has played out in the Mediterranean in Cyprus.
09:23They fired two missiles. I believe it was Sunday, but it was at the weekend.
09:29One of them, I gather, hit a runway. The other one just missed the airbase.
09:34As you say, no serious damage, no one hurt. It's not the point.
09:39That is an enemy nation firing missiles at us.
09:42Do we not respond anymore? And what was our response? Extraordinary.
09:46The Defence Secretary, John Healy, went on to television on Sunday and said,
09:51oh, well, you see, what happened was, you see, no, no, no, Iran wasn't really firing at us.
09:56This is indicative of the fact they're just spraying out missiles all over the place,
10:01and they're landing God knows where.
10:05He actually tried to maintain that the fact that two missiles,
10:09one of which hit our airbase on Cyprus, the other that just missed,
10:14that it was completely random. Again, this is lying.
10:20It's very much akin.
10:23It is trying to basically duck down, keep your head down, do nothing,
10:28by pretending it was just an accident, really.
10:32But it's very much akin to Keir Starmer's message
10:34and the other government ministers' messages,
10:36which have been churned out so frequently, you mentioned it earlier,
10:40is the, you know, the desperation show we weren't involved.
10:45It's nothing to do with us.
10:46Almost saying, and we don't approve of it.
10:50But my understanding is that drone that hit RAF Akhateri was fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon,
10:56which is, of course, a key Iranian proxy.
11:00So it was fired effectively by Iran remotely.
11:04And the natural response would be airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
11:09We won't do that.
11:11And the reason we won't do that is quite simply because Israel is carrying out
11:17a concentrated air and ground campaign right now against Hezbollah in Lebanon,
11:23which has been firing missiles into Israel.
11:24And Keir Starmer will not, I can assure you, will not,
11:29he'd have to coordinate that with Israel if he's going to do it,
11:32because Israel controls the airspace,
11:34will not carry out military action in coordination with Israel.
11:39Because, again, I come back to the point,
11:41his political support, which is very weak today,
11:44depends very heavily on a red-green alliance of Israel haters and Jew haters
11:51who would condemn him utterly if he was to take even a minor part in an operation
11:58that Israel was involved in, even worse than the United States,
12:01which, incidentally, the red-green alliance also despises.
12:05And Keir Starmer's line on this is, you know,
12:10he's calling for de-escalation and negotiation.
12:13Given what's going on in the Middle East right now
12:16and has been since last Saturday, really, last Friday, Saturday,
12:21you know, calling for de-escalation and negotiation,
12:25I said this yesterday,
12:26is like standing in front of a tsunami tidal wave
12:29and asking it politely to stop.
12:32I mean, this government has got to get real about what is going on
12:37and stop polishing its halo,
12:39old red-ed Miliband going,
12:41we're pacifists.
12:42This is not good enough.
12:44I mean, as a citizen of this country,
12:46I'm feeling really seriously that this government is not protecting us
12:51and is not capable of doing so.
12:53I find this very frightening, Richard.
12:56No, I agree with you entirely.
12:58And I think the, you know,
13:02one thing that is something, you know,
13:04something that people may not immediately think of,
13:07but we hear Keir Starmer parading around Europe and elsewhere
13:11talking about the coalition of the willing.
13:14In other words,
13:15we're going to deploy forces into Ukraine
13:18to help support the Ukrainians.
13:21That's never going to happen.
13:22And I never believed it would happen.
13:25And even more so now,
13:28certainly no country will believe it happened.
13:30Ukraine can't take any comfort
13:32from the fact that Britain can fail,
13:36totally fail to defend its own national sovereign territory.
13:42You know,
13:43in the hope that maybe they'll,
13:44we'll be doing something to help them against Russia.
13:47That's not going to happen.
13:48Of course,
13:48Putin is watching very carefully,
13:50as is President Xi.
13:51Britain has been in the past,
13:53a key military player on the side of the West,
13:56the most important military player in Europe.
13:59And it looks very much as though we're no longer that,
14:02certainly not in terms of the political will
14:04that requires courage and requires putting,
14:08when necessary,
14:09putting national interest above party politics first.
14:13And, you know,
14:15it's actually,
14:16I think I would say this is
14:18the most embarrassing position
14:21that Britain's been in,
14:22in my lifetime.
14:24I can't remember any circumstances,
14:26even remotely similar to this.
14:28Yeah,
14:28well,
14:29I've been around more years than I'd like to admit,
14:31and I totally agree with you.
14:32I feel completely humiliated as a British citizen,
14:35the worst I can remember.
14:37Richard,
14:37great to have you on the show.
14:38Come on again soon.
14:40Colonel Richard Kemp there,
14:41ex-British commander.
14:42What do you think about what he was saying?
15:03I don't care.
15:03You're not telling from nigga,
15:03I don't know.
15:03I don't know.
15:03I don't know.
15:03I don't know.
15:04you don't know.
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