Britain is one of many countries that would benefit from the replacement of brutal theocracy with democratic government in Tehran. The Iranian people would be the biggest beneficiaries. It does not follow that British interests are served by the current US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, which claims regime change as a goal but includes no credible strategy for achieving it.
The distinction was never hard to grasp. Sir Keir Starmer understood it and kept his distance from Donald Trump’s war. The leader of the opposition was not so judicious. In the first week of the conflict, Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of indecision and cowardice. She thought the absence of a legal mandate for war was irrelevant and called for the RAF to be more involved. The Conservative leader no longer holds that view. Or, rather, she denies having held it. She says that she did not call for Britain to join the US-Israeli action, but did call for British forces to strike targets inside Iran and that those are different things, although she struggles to explain how.
