‘Worrying spectacle’: UK’s former defence secretary Grant Shapps warns it’s squandering leadership on Ukraine

The UK’s former defence secretary Grant Shapps has lashed the new Labour government for squandering Britain’s leadership on Ukraine, amid ongoing dithering about whether or not to let Kyiv use long-range missiles to attack Russia.

Under the Tories, Britain gazumped the United States in providing Ukraine first with lethal weapons and tanks and helping rally support for fighter jets as well as supplying long-range missiles.

Now in opposition, prominent Tories have called for the UK to show the same leadership and authorise Ukraine to use the British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike inside Russia even if the Biden Administration continues its opposition.

The British Storm Shadow missiles rely on US GPS guidance systems.

On Sunday the UK’s new Foreign Secretary David Lammy rejected the idea saying allies needed a “shared strategy” – effectively tying Labour’s position to that of Joe Biden’s, who has been doveish throughout the war on arming Kyiv compared to Britain.

Mr Lammy justified the delay in deciding whether to let Ukraine use British missiles freely on the false claim that no weapon had ever resolved a war.

“No war is won with any one weapon, that is the case,” he said in a television interview.

“No one weapon wins any war and has won any war.”

Britain’s Imperial War Museum states that the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki “had the effects desired by the Allies” when Japan surrendered, unconditionally, on August 14, 1945, bringing World War II to an end.

Mr Lammy then said the UK would wait until the upcoming United Nations General Assembly to make further considerations, despite Ukraine pleading for more than a year to untie its hands from behind its back.

“It’s important that as allies supporting Ukraine, we have a shared strategy to win going forward,” Mr Lammy said.

In exclusive comments to The Nightly, Grant Shapps, who served as the UK’s Defence Secretary from August 2023 until the Conservatives lost government in July this year, said Ukrainians were being murdered while Britain dithered.

“This is turning into a worrying spectacle,” Mr Shapps said.

“As David Lammy pushes for further delays with the UN, innocent men, women, and children in Ukraine are falling victim to Putin’s relentless bombings.

“It’s truly disheartening to see the UK’s once-strong leadership on Ukraine being allowed to slip away.”

Last week, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to shift the Biden Administration’s position when he did not rule out allowing Ukraine permission to use the weapons across their border.

He said at a press conference in London with Mr Lammy, the pair would listen intently to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s plea when they visited Kyiv together last week.

They promised to report to their leaders ahead of the UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to Washington DC to meet US President Joe Biden on Friday.

But that meeting ended without any decision, prompting calls from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and five former Conservative Defence Secretaries, including Mr Shapps, for Britain to go it alone and let Ukraine use British missiles.

A frustrated President Zelensky said in his nightly video address he had already explained to allies why Ukraine needed the ability to attack Russian aircraft.

“The only way to counter this terror is with a systemic solution and that solution is long-range capabilities enabling us to destroy Russian aircraft at their bases,” he said.

“This is an obvious, sensible decision.”

Australia’s opposition called for the Biden Administration to relax its ban several weeks ago but the Albanese government’s position is ambiguous.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has said the use of Western missiles inside his borders would mean direct NATO involvement in the war.

“If this decision is made, it will mean nothing short of direct involvement – it will mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are parties to the war in Ukraine,” he said.

“This will mean their direct involvement in the conflict, and it will clearly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict dramatically.”