The wrong defence debate

Andy Davey cartoon

Sir Keir Starmer has stated that he will aim to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP should his party win the next election, and recommitted to the maintenance of Britain’s independent Trident nuclear deterrent. The spirit of his words is clearly welcome; the substance, however, leaves something to be desired.

Once again, Britain is having the wrong debate on defence. It is good that attention is finally being paid to the need to expand and modernise our Armed Forces, but we must now be clear about the scale of the task ahead of us. It is no longer a matter of tweaking the budget by half a percentage point here or there, but ensuring we have the ability to defend our interests.

So far, the Conservative Party has failed to grasp this. Both the current Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps, and his predecessor Ben Wallace have had pleas for additional funding turned down. Sir Keir’s statement contained careful wording – and his pledge to raise spending “as soon as resources allow that to happen” may not be so different in practice to the Conservatives’ own “as soon as economic conditions allow”. But polling indicates that he is cutting through with the public on defence, and that the Tories risk being outflanked by Labour.

Rishi Sunak should respond by triggering a new national conversation on defence. In an increasingly dangerous world, it is time to set out the capabilities we need, and fund them, rather than continuing to tweak our capabilities to suit our budget.

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