OPINION – An outburst on the Chancellor’s performance has come from the most unlikely of Labour sources.
The Chancellor continues to drag her heels on defence (Image: Getty)
John Healey has finally admitted what the rest of us knew about Rachel Reeves‘ approach to defence. The former Defence Secretary spectacularly quit his role last month in protest at the inadequcy of the Defence Investment Plan (DIP).
It came following months of internal wrangling between the Treasury over how much additional cash would be invested in defence to help the UK defend itself against Russian aggression. “The Treasury was in denial,” about the threats facing Britain and the country’s inability to defend itself, Healey claimed.
Healey accused the Treasury of putting the brakes on rearmament (Image: Getty)
It was hardly news. The rows between the two departments were one of the worst kept secrets of the Labour Government and typified Labour’s reluctant approach to defence.
It came after not including any committment to increase defence spending in their general election manifesto.
It came following their steadfast refusal to increase defence spending once in power, forced to do so only by the election of Donald Trump and the pressure that was ultimately applied by his administration on us and our NATO allies.
Yet even once committed, it was incremental, like everything else in this Government which tends to move as slowly and reluctatnly as a fat kid on his way to cross country.
Rachel Reeves maintained her ideological stubborness to fund welfare over security despite drones hitting British bases, hundreds of cyber attacks costing the UK economy billions of pounds and public humiliation at the inability of the Royal Navy to set a ship to sail.
That is not to mention the constant reminder of the threats faced by war in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The fact is that two years of Rachel Reeves as Chancellor has forced the UK to standstill on defence while our adversaries surge ahead procuring kit, weaponary and novel technologies.
It is hard to understate the peril Reeves and her MOD bean counters have placed the UK in by burying their head in the sands and avoiding the truth staring us in the face on NATO’s Eastern flank and the seas of the high north.
Healey’s appraisal of Reeves approach to funding the defence of this nation should shock nobody given her track record but should shock everybody due to the gravity of the danger.
It is for this reason, as much as any other, that Reeves will likely go down as one of the worst occupants of Number 11 Downing Street.