Labour has been warned to increase defence spending “much faster” as Russia is suspected of being behind the major cyber attack against Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). The scale of the hack led to the car manufacturer suspending operations at its three UK facilities for more than a month. While no final assessment has been made, the Kremlin is among the potential suspects for the attack, The Telegraph has revealed. Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned of the Russian state’s cyber attacks against the UK, but fell short of naming specific cases.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge is now urging Labour to focus their attention on defending Britain. “In a context where Putin has been provoking Nato allies with drone and fighter jet incursions, if this turns out to be a Russian cyber attack on our industry, that would be very significant indeed,” he said.
“We know Russia is deliberately testing our resolve. It underlines why all the effort in Government needs to be on the defence of the homeland. Labour needs to increase defence spending much faster than they are planning to,” Mr Cartlidge told the news outlet.
Suspicions of the attack coming from a foreign state stem from the scale of the damage done and the impact caused.
Experts from Government Communications Headquarters were sent into the car maker to work out what happened. A spokesman said: “The investigation is ongoing, and we would caution against speculation. The Government has persistently called out a range of actors for malicious cyber activities against the UK and will continue to do so.”
Last week, JLR announced the latest steps in the phased restart of its operations. “This week marks an important moment for JLR and all our stakeholders as we now restart our manufacturing operations following the cyber incident,” the company said in a statement.
“I would like to thank everyone connected to JLR for their commitment, hard work and endeavour in recent weeks to bring us to this moment. We know there is much more to do but our recovery is firmly underway.”
JLR employs around 30,000 people at the company’s UK plants in Solihull, Wolverhampton and Halewood. Another 1,000 or so work for firms that help supply the plants with component parts.
The UK government previously announced loan guarantees worth £1.5bn for the car manufacturer, insisting that some of that money should go to provide relief for supply chain firms.
