Starmer’s 2.5% defence spending pledge met with backlash from Labour left

Sir Keir Starmer on Friday faced a backlash from the Labour left for revealing an ambition to hike defence spending by billions despite keeping tight control of promises of extra cash for squeezed public services.

The Labour leader on Thursday told i his ambition was to boost the defence budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP – matching the Government’s aim – as long as it is achievable within Labour’s borrowing rules.

He also announced a new “triple lock” commitment to the UK’s nuclear deterrent in a deliberate contrast with Jeremy Corbyn, who once called for Britain’s nuclear arsenal to be scrapped.

On a visit to the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard in Cumbria where the party said it would build all four new Dreadnought nuclear submarines, Starmer said: “The changed Labour Party I lead knows that our nation’s defence must always come first. Labour’s commitment to our nuclear deterrent is total.”

But he faced a backlash from senior figures on the Labour left, with one insider saying it was “sickening” that Starmer had an ambition to boost defend spending by around £9bn a year after months of insisting the party would have little extra cash for public services.

While Starmer has successfully neutered the left as a meaningful force in Labour, they could pose a threat in Commons votes if the party enters government without a big majority after the next election.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Labour-affiliated Fire Brigades Union and Trades Union Congress (TUC) president told i: “The vast expenditure on Trident is denying cash starved public services desperately needed funds, after 14 years of Tory austerity and attacks on workers’ pay and conditions.

“Instead of wasting taxpayers’ money on arming Britain to the teeth with obscene weapons of nuclear annihilation, the next Labour government must properly fund public services and deliver decent pay for workers.”

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Hilary Schan, co-chair of the left leaning Momentum pressure group, said: “For months we have been told by the Labour Leadership that there’s simply no money left: no money to scrap the two-child benefit cap, no money to introduce universal free school meals, no money to invest in our public services or the green transition.

“Yet at a stroke Keir Starmer has today made a massive, permanent spending commitment.

“This shows that Labour can and should make different economic choices, recognising the benefits of public investment, as progressive and mainstream economists have long been arguing.

“But the priority should be feeding the millions of children in the UK living in poverty, and reviving our beleaguered public services, especially the NHS, not bombs and bullets fuelling more conflict.”

Meanwhile, Tory former defence minister Tobias Ellwood said that Starmer’s comments showed there was growing cross-party agreement that defence spending needs to increase amid the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and amid fears over China’s growing belligerence.

There’s growing agreement that the deteriorating global threat picture necessitates an increase in defence spending.

“But before the MOD’s budget jumps from £54bn to £90bn we need to first take stock of the type of threats we coming over the horizon – guiding us as to how our security posture should change. Such a defence review should start soon.”

The Labour Party has gone through major changes in terms of its stance on defence, with Starmer’s predecessor, Corbyn, being the vice-president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Current shadow cabinet members David Lammy, Louise Haigh Angela Rayner and Lisa Nandy all voted against Trident renewal in 2016, although since shifted their positions.

Shadow Defence Minister Luke Pollard told Times Radio: “You can’t go through the beating that we had in 2019 – the poorest election result for the Labour party since 1935 – and not listen to what the electorate told us.”

He continued: “I know just how important defence is to communities and how much they need to have a Labour party on side.”

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said Labour is “not the party to be trusted with our nation’s defences”.

He added: “This is just another attempted distraction from the Angela Rayner scandal. If Sir Keir Starmer cannot show leadership on this issue, how can he be trusted to make decision on national security.”