Sir Keir Starmer appears to be dropping two more of his pledges but denies any ‘inconsistency’
SIR Keir Starmer yesterday appeared to drop two more of his leadership pledges but firmly denied any "inconsistency" with his position.
Last week, the Labour leader gave his backing to the US-UK air strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which were launched without a vote in Parliament.
But during Labour's leadership in 2020, Sir Keir had vowed to pass a law requiring "the consent of the Commons" for military action.
In an interview with the BBC, Sir Keir said he had only meant that a vote would be needed if the UK was putting "boots on the ground".
He said: “There’s no inconsistency here. There is obviously a huge distinction between an operation, the like of which we have seen in the last few days, and military action, a sustained campaign, military action usually involving troops on the ground.”
He insisted he still stood by the principle of giving MPs a vote before sending in ground forces but suggested the alteration may not need to be in law.
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“I want to codify that – it could be by a law, it could be by some other means,” he said.
Sir Keir also appeared to row back on another commitment made in 2020 to ban arms sales to Saudi Arabi over concerns about their use in the Yemen civil war.
He said he was still committed to reviewing all arms sales, but would not be definitive when it came to the Saudis.
He told the programme: “We will review the situation and the review will give us the answers to those questions.”
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His comments are likely to cause disquiet from MPs on the left of his party, who have already expressed discontent over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
Sir Keir has been accused of rowing back on several pledges he made to secure support from the Left to succeed Jeremy Corbyn in 2020.
He has said many of his U-turns are simply down to changes in the country's circumstances, such as the Ukraine war and the Covid pandemic.