George Monbiot slammed James Cleverly over his calls for the UK to join the US in its military action in Iran.
The author and journalist was appearing opposite Cleverly on this week’s edition of Question Time when the topic of Iran was raised.
The panel were asked the question: “Why are we being dragged into war without a plan?”
During the programme, Tory shadow minister Cleverly criticised Starmer’s response to Donald Trump’s military action, saying the prime minister had been “slow off the mark.”
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When it was time for Monbiot to give his view on things, he dismantled both Trump’s actions AND the right’s seeming unwavering desire for Britain to involve itself in the conflict and unwaveringly support the US.
Monbiot condemned the war in Iran, saying Trump’s administration has “no clear objectives” and is purely “spectacle.”
He went on to say that for Britain to be dragged into the war is “not only criminal, it’s foolish in the upmost degree.”
After explaining how the war is illegal, he then turned to Cleverly, accusing him of having “learnt nothing from Iraq, has learnt nothing from Afghanistan, has learnt nothing from Libya.”
“What we see here is Donald Trump acting as he always does as a global chaos generator, and the further we stand away from that the better off we will be,” he said.
Later in the show, Monbiot warned against the possible “imperial blowback” the UK could face by becoming involved in the Iran war, pointing to the nation’s past actions there.
“We think we’re being so clever and so brilliant in wading into countries about which our governments often seem to know very little, plunging in, firing missiles, staging coups and all the rest of it,” the writer said.
“But we don’t think of those long-term outcomes, those long-term consequences and the absolutely catastrophic effects they can have many decades down the line.”