I doubt there is a single Daily Express reader who fails to understand that Britain is facing the most serious potential threats for generations. You will also totally understand that this requires more spending on Defense.
We thought Keir Starmer agreed. He made a supposed ‘cast iron’ promise to spend 2.5% of our economic output on Defense. And yet, we are still awaiting a shred of detail about exactly how – and, above all, when – this spending increase will take place.
Of course, following the ‘peace’ that appeared to follow the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 many countries, including the UK, reduced Defense spending. But in Government, as the threat picture has deteriorated, we did the right thing and started to reverse that trend. In 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed the largest Defense spending increase since the cold war.
Most importantly, following the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East, we responded again. In April, then PM Rishi Sunak announced a funded plan to increase Defense spending to 2.5% of GDP.
This increase would have been paid for by cutting the civil service back to its pre-pandemic size and giving a greater share of the Government’s research and development budget to Defense – savings from across the whole of Whitehall to fund the most important duty of any administration , defense of the realm.
Our priority for that spending would have been restoring our ammunition stocks to warfighting levels – ie, replacing those weapons rightly gifted to Ukraine, and ensuring all our kit was ready to face the most up to date threats from potential enemies.
And we would have done that at pace, using the new procurement model I introduced as a Defense Minister, earlier this year, enabling us to procure new weapons tech like DragonFire laser much faster than previously planned.
Meanwhile, with Labour there’s nothing but continued uncertainty over when Defense spending will rise. As a result, the Ministry of Defense cannot procure the weapons we need at the scale and speed necessary to prepare us for warfighting – and yet, this would be one of the best ways to show Putin and others that we mean business.
As a result, we are staring down the barrel of empty stockpiles when we should be placing orders for new ammunition today, not waiting a minute longer. As the world races to rearm, we should not be waiting and watching on the sidelines. We should be boosting our spending and firing up our defense industrial base.
Who knows when the Government’s Strategic Defense Review will take place or report – but we all know that it will say we need to restore our war readiness, and quickly. So let’s get on with it.
Threats facing the UK are only growing and evolving. War in Europe. Attacks on our values and assets abroad. Instability in the Middle East. The Government needs to do the right thing and urgently set a pathway to higher defense spending.
