On Tuesday the Prime Minister announced a mere 0.2% rise in defence spending saying will rise from 2.3% to 2.5% in 2027.
The former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the Express that Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement is a “staggering desertion of leadership.”
Wallace said that Starmer is “tone deaf to the dangers of the world and demands of the United States,” adding, “Such a weak commitment to our security and nation puts us all at risk.”
Another former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said that the Prime Minister must go further and suggested reducing Civil Servant numbers to provide extra money which will allow Labour to spend 2.8% by 2027, he told Starmer that “Security must come first.”
Top Tory Sir Simon Clarke said that Starmer has not put the UK on a “war footing,” he said, “2.5% by 2027 is standing still with more realistic accounting. We need 3% in this Parliament, not the next.
“Today’s announcement feels as though Stanley Baldwin gave it. Wholly inadequate to the nature of the threat.”
Starmer said that by parliament’s term in 2029 the UK will spend 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) which is the largest increase in defence spending since the Cold War.
Starmer told MPs in the House of Commons, “(Vladimir) Putin thought he would weaken NATO. He has achieved the exact opposite.
“It remains a cut, and I will not pretend otherwise. We will do everything we can to return to a world where that is not the case and rebuild a capability on development.
“But at times like this, the defence and security of the British people must always come first.”
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