UK Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer last week declared for the third time that he would, in office, authorise the firing of nuclear missiles.
A conversation between Starmer and ITV News Political Correspondent Harry Horton—as Starmer was visiting the BAE Systems shipyard where Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines are built—was chilling. Horton asked, “If Britain was under attack would you be prepared to push the nuclear button… even it means potentially killing millions of people?”
Starmer replied, “The deterrent only works if there is a preparedness to use it—so that is a clear answer to your question.”
With the Conservative government mired in crisis and hated by millions, Labour is expected to win the general election later this year. Starmer’s statement is an essential element of Labour’s pitch to the ruling class that it can be trusted with office, under conditions in which Britain is embroiled in major military conflicts all over the globe.
Significantly, Starmer’s first public confirmation that he would authorise nuclear strikes took place on February 10, 2022. Asked by the BBC whether he would be willing to use nuclear weapons, he replied, “Of course.” This was just 14 days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In January this year, while in Estonia, Starmer answered yes to the same question.
Starmer has since then boasted that Labour is the “party of NATO”, as he has enthusiastically backed every global crime of British imperialism, from the bloody slaughter in Ukraine, to supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and advanced plans for war against Iran and China.
The Labour leader is one of three senior political figures—including two prime ministers—who have publicly declared over the last decade that they would take actions meaning the end of civilisation.
That they were asked if they would do so was the response of Britain’s ruling class to the election of Starmer’s predecessor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, when he hesitated to pledge to launching a nuclear strike.
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