The former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, suggested in an article for the Spectator today that the UK Government took drone strikes not in self-defence of an imminent threat to the UK, but instead as “payback” or revenge.
Boris Johnson is suggesting that the Government has consistently misled the public over their justification for the use of lethal force. He is effectively sanctioning the death penalty without trial, further undermining decades of UK opposition to the practice and putting UK personnel at risk of criminal liability.
The Government must urgently clarify their policy on this crucial area of national security, rather than leaving the public and Parliament to try and piece it together from the contradictory statements of ministers and former ministers.
