Britain must take a new path, says Starmer

LONDON:

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday said the Iran war must become a turning point for Britain after two decades of crises, promising to strengthen the country's economy and military to cope with a more "volatile and dangerous" world.

Starmer said the crisis, which has already pushed up fuel prices in Britain and is expected to drive further inflation and economic disruption, must become "a line in the sand" for the country.

"Britain has been buffeted by crises for nearly two decades now," he wrote in The Guardian newspaper, citing the 2008 global financial crash and the austerity that followed, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"The war in Iran must now become a line in the sand, because how we emerge from this crisis will define all of us for a generation. Instead of hoping to return to the world of 2008, we will forge a new path for Britain - one that strengthens our energy, our defence and our economic security in a new age."