Colonel Richard Kemp has warned that Britain could turn on Israel if Starmer is elected, in an exclusive interview for GB News members.
Colonel Kemp told GB News: “If Starmer gets into power… we’re going to see Britain probably turning on Israel in a way that we haven’t seen so far.”
The former British Army commander warned “a future Labour government… is even less likely to bolster up our defence” and said Labour MPs are currently biting their tongues on Israel.
However, if they are elected Colonel Kemp said “we’re going to see those tongues being unbitten”.
Colonel Kemp, who served in the British Army from 1977 until 2006, said Labour had so far “held a strong line in support of Israel” in order to attract voters going into the next election.
He predicted that Labour MPs, councillors and shadow ministers would reverse their line on Israel after their widely expected election victory in the general election.
Following an Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel on Saturday, Starmer supported Britain’s involvement in defending Israel.
Britain, the United States and other allies supported Israeli air defences and thwarted the majority of Iran’s more than 300 missiles.
On Monday the Labour leader said: “We support the defensive action taken by the UK over the weekend alongside our international allies against the Iranian attacks on Israel and we welcome the prime minister’s call for restraint.”
He continued: “We also support the RAF planes being sent to the region to bolster Operation Shader; their efforts are vital for a safer world.”
Colonel Kemp didn’t hold back against the Conservatives too, saying that even taking into fact the Covid crisis and economic pressures, they had been “disastrous” for defence.
He continued: “I can’t see the current Labour Party turning into the kind of a party of strong support for defence of the United Kingdom. I hope I’m wrong.”
“I’d love to believe I’m wrong, but I don’t see it happening; I think we’re going to be in even worse trouble in the future than we are today.”
Starmer has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas following the attacks on October 7 2023.
The Labour leader made the call in February, urging a ceasefire “not just for now, not just for a pause, but permanently”.
“A ceasefire that lasts. This is what must happen now. The fighting must stop now,” he said.
Colonel Kemp also cautioned that Britain’s military “has been getting smaller and smaller” despite threats to peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
He said: ”We’ve got to prepare for the kind of aggression that we’ve seen from Russia against Ukraine.”
“Instead of reversing the downward spiral of defence in Britain, it’s been increased.
“So we’ve now got a situation where we have very, very limited capability.”
“Aside from the fact we’ve given so much of our military hardware to Ukraine… We simply don’t have anything like the level of potency that we need in this increasingly dangerous world.”
Earlier this year the head of the British Army General Sir Patrick Sanders wrote a letter to retired generals warning that Britain will be unable to deploy troops abroad if defence cuts continued.
Sandersues wrote: “For some time, we have asset-sweated the military, compounded by a mismatch between ambition and resource that has been robustly addressed by both National Audit Office and Defence Select Committee reporting.”
“Our strategic resilience is at risk, and we might inadvertently reduce ourselves to a smaller, static and domestically-focused land force. I am not sure that this is either the Army the nation needs, or the one that policymakers want.”
