For all the focus on President Trump and what he has said in recent days, he is surely right that the UK and other NATO nations need to spend much more on defence.
It was a privilege as MP to participate a few years ago in the Armed Forces Parliamentary ‘shadowing’ scheme but one take-away for my time with front line units is how thinly stretched our armed forces are across different territories and types of warfare. On top of the army, navy and air force, these days must be added space and cyber. Challenges have been amplified by our support for the war in Ukraine where for example almost the whole of the British Army’s AS90 self-propelled 155 mm shell artillery units were given to Ukraine.
In the UK we spend around 2.3% of GDP on defence – far less than the US at more than 3.4% and fellow European NATO member, Poland at 4.1%.
The already highly taxed UK has no more potential to put taxes up, and borrowing would simply leave a bigger burden for our children, so I am prepared to support this Labour government on a cross-party basis in taking tough decisions in cutting other budgets, including welfare, to boost spending on our military to the levels required.
