Labour minister obfuscates over defence spend target

While Sir Keir Starmer is in France this Armistice Day to place wreaths at the Arc de Triomphe, the Prime Minister’s defence secretary is doing the UK morning round. John Healey was across the airwaves this morning discussing president-elect Donald Trump, the war in Ukraine and the small boats fiasco. But on the issue of defence spending, Healey became rather tongue-tied…

Quizzed by LBC’s Nick Ferrari on whether Starmer’s army will meet its target of increasing military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP this parliament, the defence secretary repeatedly refused to directly answer the question. Instead Healey insisted that there will be a ‘path in the Spring’ to meeting the target – before trying to shift the focus away from the financial target altogether. 

‘It’s not how much you spend, but how you spend it and what on,’ the defence secretary claimed, going on:

That’s the purpose of the defence review. The reason for taking stock of threats is to allow us to deal with this new era of insecurity and make our forces better fit to fight. Once we’ve done that, early in the next year you’ll see us set out that path. That’s a level this country hasn’t spent since 2010 under the last Labour government.

Er, right. It’s still not quite an exact timeline though. With Labour’s extremely short honeymoon period over and the Prime Minister’s approval rating plummeting, perhaps government ministers should focus on honesty rather than obfuscation, eh? Just a thought…