Keir Starmer announced an additional £15bn in the defence investment plan which was published yesterday, and showed that UK defence spending will be £80bn a year by 2029.
Starmer claimed the plan is ‘costed line by line’ and is the ‘right choice for the country’.
It will be funded by ‘reallocating spending from across government departments, reallocating capital budgets by one penny in every pound, while still maintaining public investment at the highest sustained levels since the 1970s.’
Starmer boasted that the government is delivering the ‘biggest sustained increase’ in defence spending since the 1980s.
The previous government spent £54bn on defence per year before Labour took office. This is being increased to ‘almost £80bn’ per year by 2029. ‘That is a real terms increase of 27%.’
Starmer claimed the plan will ‘make the British people safer’ by reversing defence cuts of recent years and rebuilding ammunition stockpiles, ensuring the UK is ‘better prepared to win’ a war.
The UK will build a ‘hybrid navy,’ he said, ‘meaning that when British frigates move to intercept a threat to British interests, like a Russian ship, they will do so with outriders, uncrewed ships above and below the surface’.
He said that the Army will be ‘10 times more lethal’ with ‘one-way attack drones’, long-range missiles, armoured vehicles, and counter drone defence systems.
‘The best way to avoid war is to prepare for it,’ Starmer proclaimed ludicrously.
He also claimed that defence spending plans will enhance the economy, by creating ‘almost 60,000 jobs’. The motto is to ‘back British’.
He said they will bring start-ups into the defence supply chain, which ‘pays off in every region and every community.
‘The fact is defence jobs are different. They are high skilled, well paid. They offer career paths, training and a greater sense of meaning.’
Starmer announced they will be creating a new ‘£50bn defence export facility’, which he described as a ‘once in a generation boost’.
He also claimed supporting Ukraine is the ‘right’ and ‘just’ thing to do, and that the outcome of the war will ‘shape our lives for decades to come’.
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