Foreign Secretary of British shadow cabinet, Emily Thornberry has hit out at Prime Minister, Boris Johnson for refusing to call off holiday while the Iran crisis persists.
She spoke out as it emerged that the prime minister will not return to work until Monday – almost two weeks after he flew to the paradise island of Mustique.
She pointed out that Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, had been left to chair three emergency Cobra meetings about the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, in Mr Johnson’s absence.
“He’s sunning himself, drinking vodka martinis somewhere else, and not paying attention to this,” Ms Thornberry told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.
Thias criticism comes on the heels of a separate newspaper article, where the Labour leadership suggested the prime minister was staying silent because he was “afraid of angering Trump”.
The attack came as Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, admitted Mr Johnson would not be “back in play” until Monday, after flying back over the weekend from the luxury break with Carrie Symonds, his girlfriend.
In the interview, Ms Thornberry warned of a “lurch towards war” because of Donald Trump’s “reckless” decision to kill the Iranian general, moments after Mr Raab gave the UK’s backing.
She said she “sheds no tears” for the military leader but added it was “not making the world safer”, warning British interests in region are “now vulnerable”.
She also faulted Mr Trump’s failure to notify the UK before carrying out the fatal drone strike on Friday, pointing it out as evidence of London’s lack of influence.
“He didn’t even tell us before he agreed for this man to be killed in Baghdad,” she said. “They breached Iraqi sovereignty in order to kill the head of the defence forces for Iran.
“There will be great pressure on the Iraqis to say to the Americans and to the British and to the other western allies that have been trying to help them fight Isis that they should leave, and so I think that it makes the whole area much more unstable, much more dangerous.”
