Streeting backs Trump on defence spending

Defence secretary Wes Streeting said Donald Trump is absolutely right to demand the UK increase military spending significantly after a Joint Expeditionary Force summit in Keflavik.

“president Trump and his administration have been absolutely right to demand more of the UK, more of Europe”

Labour splits over defence versus welfare

The push for expanded military budgets exposes a rift among Labour MPs over balancing defence expansion against welfare spending ahead of the Budget.

Budget plan defers full spending target

Chancellor John Healey plans to fund the Defence Investment Plan in the immediate Budget, but a definitive blueprint to reach three percent spending by twenty thirty has been deferred to the twenty twenty-seven spending review.

Streeting invokes Denis Healey's warning

Addressing military leaders, Streeting quoted former defence secretary Denis Healey's nineteen sixty-nine warning that cutting defence until security is imperilled leaves a nation with no houses, no hospitals, no schools.

“no houses, no hospitals, no schools, we have a heap of cinders”

Burnham warns against welfare cuts

Prime minister Andy Burnham has previously cautioned that national security cannot come at the expense of social security, resisting further military spending commitments.

Officials explore private capital for defence

To address a four point seven billion pound gap in the Ministry of Defence's fifteen billion pound investment plan, British officials met Canadian prime minister Mark Carney in Liverpool to evaluate the Canadian-led Defence, Security and Resilience Bank.