KEIR Starmer has failed to call the US bombing of a girls’ school in Iran a war crime as he was told he had taken the UK into the war "whether he accepts it or not".
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn asked the Prime Minister if he thought the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab was against the laws of war in the Commons on Wednesday afternoon.
Starmer refused to comment on the incident other than to say he was “concerned” about footage of the attack.
Video evidence strongly suggests that the US was behind the attack but the White House has failed to confirm this so far, with Donald Trump’s claims it was “done by Iran” dismissed by experts.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Flynn said: “Let’s be clear, war in Iran is illegal and the situation that has unfolded since is verging on insane.
“Oil is falling from the skies, sewers are exploding, the IRGC is indiscriminately attacking civilians across the region, cargo ships and potentially even mining the Strait of Hormuz, the economic consequences of which will be stark for the global economy but for every single person living on these isles, too.
“And whether the Prime Minister accepts it or not, he did indeed take us into that war when he allowed the Americans to use UK bases just last week. But I have a specific question.
READ MORE: BBC studio left silent after audience asked if 'UK should be involved in Iran war'
“He’ll have seen the same footage I have of an American Tomahawk missile landing on a primary school killing 110 children. Does he believe that to be a war crime?”
The total killed by the strike, which came amid a flurry of bombs dropped on a nearby Revolutionary Guard base on February 28, has risen above 165, the Associated Press reported earlier this week.
Starmer replied: “We’re all concerned by that footage but let me be absolutely clear with him: we have 300,000 UK nationals including Scottish citizens in the region. Strikes, missiles and drones are being fired into the region putting them at great danger.
“We are taking action to protect them. I am astonished that the SNP says, ‘Don’t take action to support Scottish citizens in the region.’ It’s outrageous.”
Analysis of video footage obtained by Sky News’s data and forensics team was analysed by munitions expert N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, who told the channel: “The video shows a Tomahawk missile striking a target. Given the belligerents, that indicates it is a US strike, as Israel is not known to possess Tomahawk missiles.”
He said it was “clearly not an Iranian Soumar missile”, despite online claims to the contrary.
Meanwhile, in the Commons, Starmer hit out at the Tories and Reform for their shifting positions on the war.
He said: “After nine days of saying, ‘join the war, join the war, join the war’, yesterday, [Kemi Badenoch] says ‘I never said we should join, I haven’t said we should go in with the US’.
“I’ll tell you what’s happened, she and the Reform leader have been spooked, because they realise they have jumped into supporting a war without thinking through the consequences, and now she is furiously trying to backpedal.”
Badenoch hit back, blasting the delayed deployment of HMS Dragon to defend RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, saying: “If I were prime minister, HMS Dragon would have left a week ago. The only time he’s taken decisive action was stopping Andy Burnham from standing in the by-election.”
Starmer said earlier: “In this job, you don’t get a second shot at making the right call on taking your country to war.
“If she were prime minister, we would be in the war, and she would be coming back to Parliament a week later to say, ‘Oh, sorry, I got that one wrong’.”
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