The Defence Budget that is indefensible!
David Vance SubstackRead More
It finally arrived. The long overdue “Defence Investment Plan” was unveiled by Tow Year Keir Starmer yesterday and it arrived dead on arrival. You will probably recall that Defence Chiefs had argued for an extra £28bn to try and restore our Nations run down defence capability. Starmer, in what is probably his final major act as PM, offered them just over half of that, £15bn.
As if that was not bad enough, closer inspection shows that £5bn of the £15bn promised will have to be “found” from somewhere. It’s currently unfunded so the usual “efficiency savings” distraction is deployed. So incoming Prime Minister Burnham will start his premiership with a massive black hole in his Defence budget which in itself is nowhere near that which is needed.
Worse still, Starmer has made it clear that in order to even cough up the extra £10bn, there will have to be cuts in transport infrastructure and other associated areas. So we will all suffer in order for Starmer to deliver a half baked Defence Budget.
Let’s turn to the elephant in the room – the UK Welfare Budget. It is estimated at being circa £333bn in 2025. So the £15bn Defence Spend promised is around 4.5% of the Welfare Budget. It’s all about priorities, innit? You see the Labour backbenchers will not accept any dilution in the Welfare Spend. In fact they want it increased if anything so Starmer is trapped. And so will Burnham. This is a circle that you just can’t square and so it seem to me that the Defence of Britain will be relegated to the fringe of political priority. What’s so disturbing about THAT is that the number one priority of any Government is to defend and protect its people. Labour is explicitly denying that and offers “Free Breakfast Clubs “in its place.
So the UK military will continue to be short changed and we all saw the consequences of this absolute military inadequacy when Iran’s proxies attacked the UK RAF base on Cyprus and it took us THREE WEEKS to send a naval carrier to the region. When it reached there, it broke down.
Government has a choice. Priorities Welfare or Defend our Nation.
Starmer has shown his priorities and I doubt Burnham will be any better.
