Sir Keir Starmer accused of 'dithering' over defence investment amid tax rise fears

Here's why Labour is stuck in the defence spending long grass while Europe is rearming at pace

“The Prime Minister knows what defence the nation needs”, Defence Secretary John Healey insisted this afternoon.Mr Healey, a loyal ally of Sir Keir Starmer, is now at the heart of a row over the long-delayed but still unpublished Defence Investment Plan.Speaking alongside Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and their Australian counterparts at the annual AUKMIN summit at Lancaster House, Healey stressed: “When we publish really significant reports f…

Keir Starmer dithering over defence spending, says Kemi Badenoch

The clash at PMQs comes amid a cabinet battle over how a military investment plan will be funded.

PM faces pressure on potential tax rises for WWII-level defence hike

Prime Minister Keir Starmer failed to rule out tax hikes to fund the Government’s long-delayed defence investment plan - but economic experts warn there are bigger problems to come

Securing Britain’s defence should be Starmer’s legacy

Few critiques of British mythmaking have been more astute than that of Correlli Barnett. He argued that 18th-century statesmen were hardheaded industrialists and merchants who understood the basis of military power. Then a new culture emerged, created by Victorian educationalists, one that had a ‘high-minded emphasis on religion and the classics’. By the end of the 19th century, Britain’s elites no longer understood the nation’s military-industr…

Sir Keir Starmer accused of 'dithering' over defence investment amid tax rise fears

The Defence Investment Plan was supposed to be published last autumn, however it has been repeatedly delayed.

PMQs live: Starmer fails to rule out tax rises to fund defence