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A Prime Minister who built his reputation on never taking his eye off the ball was reportedly on a Spanish beach when the world came closest to a catastrophic escalation in the Middle East — and his opponents have not missed the irony.

The Express understands Starmer touched down back in Britain on Tuesday night, stepping off a commercial flight into a crisis that had been building for days without him.

By first light on Wednesday he was gone again — wheels up from Stansted on a three-day swing through Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states that his team had been quietly planning for weeks.

The formal announcement only came once Trump had posted his ceasefire declaration just before midnight.

Prior to that Trump had been making threats to “obliterate” Iran, “end” it’s civilization in words many interpreted as a willingness on the part of the president to use nuclear weapons against the country of around 100 million people.

The holiday that haunts him

The situation carries an uncomfortable resonance. When Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab were photographed relaxing abroad while Kabul collapsed in 2021, it was Starmer who led the charge against them — branding their absence a leadership failure and a demonstration of poor judgement at the worst possible moment.

“You cannot coordinate an international response from the beach,” he said at the time. “I wouldn’t stay on holiday while Kabul was falling.”

He was in Spain when Trump threatened to erase Iranian civilisation. The contrast writes itself.

Could this define his premiership?

According to tThe Times, those around Starmer have started reaching for historical parallels — specifically Gordon Brown’s sure-footed response to the 2008 banking collapse, which briefly transformed his standing. The suggestion is that the Iran crisis might do something similar for a prime minister whose domestic position has been relentlessly difficult.

There are early signs of movement on the Labour benches, states the report. Sources indicate MPs who have watched Starmer push back against Trump on the war’s legality have grown more supportive, and whispered conversations about his post-May departure have become noticeably quieter.

The polling is nuanced. When YouGov asked voters specifically about the Iran situation on March 30, 38 per cent approved of how Starmer had handled it, while 45 per cent disapproved. Within Labour’s own electorate, nearly two thirds viewed his performance favourably — numbers his team regards as workable given the broader context.

The broader context, however, remains brutal. Some 71 per cent of the public give his overall performance a negative rating, against just 21 per cent who see it positively. That is a fractional improvement on where he stood in February, when disapproval touched 73 per cent. The party he leads is attracting support from one in six voters.

Military friction

Away from the politics, Britain’s military posture has generated friction with the very allies Starmer is now travelling to reassure. Both Bahrain and the UAE made their displeasure known at what they viewed as a tokenistic UK contribution to the regional response.

That contribution amounted to a single warship. HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, was dispatched to the eastern Mediterranean — taking several weeks to get there, only to develop a technical problem that put it back in port shortly after arrival.

The situation on Cyprus has added a further complication. A drone attack on RAF Akrotiri that left a hangar damaged has prompted the island’s government to seek firm commitments from London about the defence of the two British air bases there. The question of whether the UK has the capability to protect them has been asked openly and remains unanswered.

Economic pressure

The financial fallout from the conflict is pressing hard against the domestic agenda Starmer came to office to deliver. Analysts say the price effects of disruption to Middle East supply chains will persist for the better part of six months regardless of what happens at the Strait of Hormuz.

At the forecourt, a full tank of diesel now costs £100. Household energy bills are heading for a rise of roughly £200. On supermarket shelves, the combination of gas price pressure and constrained fertiliser supply is expected to push food costs higher throughout the year.

Starmer’s personal relationship with Trump — the man whose decisions will shape much of what happens next — has meanwhile deteriorated beyond repair. Trump has publicly ridiculed him, evoked the memory of Neville Chamberlain in the same breath as his name, and lampooned him in front of guests at a White House dinner.

Whatever diplomatic goodwill the Gulf trip generates, the dynamic with Washington remains the central problem.