OPINION: At last, Prime Minister is set to sign off on £18bn defence investment package after a year of dither and delay
The pair have attempted in vain to placate the left of their party at our expense (Image: Getty)
Reports over the weekend suggest that Sir Keir Starmer is finally set to agree to the funding required for the Ministry of Defence to afford all 62 of the recommendations in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR). In a complex, high-threat world, the news is more than welcome, but way overdue. Yet desp[ite being welcome, it poses the bigger question: why now?
Why has the Prime Minister waited until his back was against a wall, with threats all around, to agree to the measure that was laid bare nearly a year ago when the SDR was released? The timing poses a second question, does the Prime Minister recognise the threats facing the country or is he simply consumed with self-preservation?
Two years of dithering on defence has caused harm to our armed forces and national security (Image: Getty)
An increase to defence spending was obvious long before Rishi Sunak stood umbrella-less in the rain to call a general election.
Russia’s war in Ukraine was raging, Iran and Israel were trading missiles and drones and China was expanding its influence across every corner of the globe.
Yet Labour have dragged their heels at every opportunity. They refused to include a pledge to increase defence spending in their manifesto and only committed to doing so when dragged kicking and screaming by Donald Trump.
They have kicked a pledge to increase it to an appropriate level into the long grass of the 2030s, a time when they might not even be the main opposition.
The first two years have been characterised by delay and dither, with the first year consumed by the long wait for the SDR’s publication and the second by Rachel Reeves’ refusal to fund the report’s conclusions in a desperate attempt to placate the idealistic backbencher who now have the PM in their crosshairs.
The delay to the Defence Investment Plan has seen senior military planners left able to only discuss war but unable to actually prepare due to the continued uncertainty and lack of direction.
So low a priority was defence to Starmer’s government that it was barely mentioned in the Spring Statement and the Defence Readiness Bill was omitted from the King’s Speech.
The only area of defence Labour have been committed to has been the repealing of the Legacy Act which could see hundreds of former servicemen dragged through the courts on spurious accusations.
So what has changed?
Starmer is desperate. The left of his party, who he has pandered to for two years by funding welfare over warfare, have abandoned him as they were always going to.
So while the decision to fund defence is welcome, we have wasted two years while our adversaries arm and our allies jump to the front of the defence manufacturers’ queue.