Reform UK and the Tories are at daggers drawn, but they do at least agree on one thing: Keir Starmer must be protected.

Yes, you read that right. In response to Donald Trump’s attack on the British Prime Minister for not helping America keep open the Strait of Hormuz, both parties leapt to Starmer’s defense. Trump’s attacks are “childish”, said Kemi Badenoch. “I don’t like to see our Prime Minister berated by foreign leaders,” insisted Robert Jenrick.

Of course, it’s not Starmer’s position they’re worried about but their own. That’s because Conservative and Reform support for Operation Epic Fury — the US and Israeli strikes against Iran — has put the Right on the wrong side of British public opinion.

Both parties have been walking back their initial enthusiasm. Nigel Farage was the first to change his tone, declaring that “if we can’t even defend Cyprus, let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.” Meanwhile, Badenoch offered up a horribly convoluted op-ed for the Daily Mail in which she both declared her support for and opposition to the US-Israeli strikes. “Britain stands with her allies when they confront hostile regimes,” she wrote. Then, a few lines later, she said this: “When our allies confront that threat militarily, I’m clear we shouldn’t have joined in — I remain concerned that there isn’t a clear plan behind the strikes.” Eh?

It’s a proper mess, and symptomatic of an underpowered effort on foreign and defense policy. James Cartlidge is a solid Shadow Defense Secretary, but he doesn’t have the seniority to carve out a credible Conservative position on geopolitics as a whole. That would mean trespassing on Priti Patel’s turf as Shadow Foreign Secretary. She, however, has not risen to the intellectual challenge that Trump and Trumpism present to the old Atlanticist certainties. Read Patel’s recent words on the Special Relationship, and you’d never guess that the current president of the United States has menaced the UK with unprovoked trade tariffs, attempted to force an unjust peace on Ukraine, threatened the sovereign territory of not one but two Nato allies, or insulted British soldiers who fought and died as allies of the US in Afghanistan.

Even if Trumpism doesn’t survive Trump, we would be fools to count on a restoration of the transatlantic relationship to its default settings. As long ago as 2011, Barack Obama warned about a “pivot to Asia“, by which he meant a transfer of American attention and resources away from Europe and toward countering the rise of China. That will be the long-term trend in US foreign policy, whether under the Democrats or the post-Trump Republicans.

So if Badenoch wants to appear serious on these issues, she needs a shadow foreign secretary who’s sound on the defense of freedom, but who also understands the new realities. As for Reform, who remembers when Farage launched his “shadow cabinet”? Both the foreign affairs and defense positions were left unfilled. A month later, that’s still the case. At a time of international crisis and for a party presenting itself as a government-in-waiting, this just isn’t credible.

One might remind both Badenoch and Farage that national security is supposed to be a strong issue for the Right. But between them, they’ve made Starmer, Ed Davey and even Zack Polanski look good by comparison.

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Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

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