KEIR Starmer wants Britain to be a country in a state of “war-fighting readiness”.
The Prime Minister has announced a blitz of defence spending commitments, including the creation of six weapons factories and the construction of up to 12 new submarines with a £15 billion commitment for nuclear warheads.
It appears to paint a stark picture of Labour’s priorities; take money away from pensioners and give it to massive arms companies.
There is no doubt that the Government is more relaxed about pledging billions to be spent on bombs than on welfare.
But let’s not try to do Labour’s PR for them. It seems that the Ministry of Defence has already had its wings clipped by miserly Treasury bean counters.
Defence Secretary John Healy sounded confident in an interview with The Times on Saturday when he said there was “no doubt” Britain would be spending 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on the military “in the next parliament”.
Cut to the following day, when the story was followed up by the Sunday politics shows and Healey (above) had revised this back down to an “ambition”, which was the Government’s official line before his Times interview.
The right-wing press are already declaring that Labour have retreated on defence spending, which seems a fair indication that they would have perhaps liked Starmer to commit to a bomb for every man, woman and child the length and breadth of the country.
On the other hand, the Prime Minister’s left-wing opponents will see his military profligacy as evidence that the famous adage that there is always money for war holds true.
The fact is that both sides have a point here. The Prime Minister has raided the international aid budget to fund greater military spending and seems ready to cut other areas to pay for more.
But by the same token, the amount of money that it would take to really make Britain a “battle-ready, armour-clad nation” – as the Prime Minister had it in his speech in Glasgow on Monday – would make tight-fisted Chancellor Rachel Reeves faint.
Let’s call this what it is: Jingoist sabre-rattling that will please no one. That’s becoming something of a theme with this bungling Labour government.
