26/03/2025 09:31
The Guardian
Keir Starmer will face Kemi Badenoch at PMQs before the chancellor delivers her spring statement Ever since Donald Trump became US president, Keir Starmer and all his ministers have tried as much as possible to avoid saying what they think about all the things being said and done by his administration (many of which are abhorrent to mainstream UK political opinion). Sometimes Starmer and his team have adopted the line that it is not their job to be “commentators”. (Lynton Crosby used to try the same argument with the Tories.) This has led to many interviews taking a surreal turn, like Angela Rayner’s on the World at One yesterday, where she refused repeated attempts to offer any significant response to JD Vance, the US vice-president, and Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, denouncing the Europeans as pathetic freeloaders.But this morning John Healey, the defence secretary, was a bit more forthcoming. In an interview with Times Radio, asked about the Vance/Hegseth argument, he said:I regard it more of a challenge.The Americans have got a case, the Americans have absolutely got a case, that on defence spending, on European security, on our support for Ukraine, European nations can and will do more and the UK is leading the way.I’m proud of that on defence spending, on European security and on Ukraine. It’s why we’re pulling together the coalition.I’m proud that the UK, alongside France, is leading the coalition of the willing, ready to stand by Ukraine in the event of a negotiated peace just as we have through the war.And we’re responding to the US challenge to European nations like the UK to do more to support Ukraine.The chancellor will announce a further £2.2bn funding increase for defence from April, as she warns that Britain has to “move quickly in a changing world”.The funding will be invested in advanced technologies so that Britain’s armed forces have the tools they need to compete and win in modern warfare. This includes guaranteeing the investment to fit Royal Navy ships with Directed Energy Weapons by 2027. These weapons can hit a £1 coin from 1km away and take down drones at a distance of 5km.In February, the prime minister set out the government’s commitment to increase spending on defence to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027 and an ambition to spend 3% of GDP on defence in the next parliament as economic and fiscal conditions allow.That was the right decision in a more insecure world, putting an extra £6.4bn into the defence budget by 2027. Continue reading...
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