Starmer says he wants UK to be fastest military innovator in Nato
Starmer says the world has changed, and that means “the front line, if you like, is here”.
He says the strategic defence review is “a blueprint to make Britain safer and stronger, a battle-ready, bomber-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities, equipped for the decades to come”.
He says the government will deliver three fundamental changes.
First, it is moving to war-fighting readiness.
We are moving to war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces.
When we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, the most effective way to deter them is to be ready, and frankly, to show them that we’re ready to deliver peace through strength.
Second, everything the government will do will add to the strength of Nato, he says.
And, third, the government will “accelerate innovation at a wartime pace”, he says. He says he wants the UK to be “the fastest innovator in Nato’.
Key events
Farage says Reform UK attracting ‘very good talent’, as he announces councillor defections from Tories and Labour
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has used a press conference in Aberdeen to announce the defection of a Tory councillor to his party. He said:
One of the reasons that we’ve been doing well in Scotland is we’ve been attracting some very, very good, fresh talent. There have been several Conservative councillors that have come to us, and there’ll be a Labour councillor coming to us this afternoon when we get to Hamilton.
But Duncan Massey has been not just a city councillor here in Aberdeen over the course of the last few years, but is somebody who has spent 20 years working in the oil and gas industry, and it’s my happy duty to welcome Duncan as a Reform councillor here in the city of Aberdeen today.
Massey is the 13th defection to Reform in Scotland, Severin Carrell reports.
Farage was speaking at a news conference attended by some business figures from the oil and gas industry. Reform is opposed to net zero measures to reduce carbon emission, and Farage said 2025 would be a record year for fossil fuel consumption. He said:
We can con ourselves as much as we like, there’ll be more coal burnt this year than has ever been burnt in the history of mankind. And the same applies to the use of gas and oil, even the most ardent opponent of net zero has to accept the world will still be using oil and gas.
Reform’s net zero policies have been strongly criticised by experts.
Downing Street normally holds a lobby briefing at 11.30am. But today, because the PM is in Glasgow, it will be at 3.45pm. I’ve amended the agenda for the day at 7.56am to get the correct time in.
Q: How will the strategic defence review help the UK tackle Russian aggression in the far north?
Starmer says the UK is facing threats “of a different order” from those it has faced in the past. He says the defence review will ensure “that our capability meets the threats that we face”.
Q: Could Russia cause an internet blackout and power outages in the UK?
Starmer says the UK has to be prepared for all the threats from Russia. He goes on:
We’re working, as you would expect, with allies, to ensure that we can protect all of our infrastructure and all of our capabilities.
Q: If Labour comes third in Hamilton, behind the SNP and Reform UK, which is what the bookmakers expect, won’t it be the end of Scottish Labour?
Starmer repeats the point about how he thinks only Labour can beat the SNP in the seat.
Q: Why are you not going to Hamilton to campaign? Is it because you are afraid you will lose the byelection?
Starmer says he thinks only Labour can beat the SNP in Hamilton. He says he is focusing on what is best for people in the whole of Scotland.
Q: Voters in Hamilton, where the byelection is taking place, are angry about the government’s cuts. Are you priorities different from those of the Scottish people?
Starmer criticises the SNP for not backing the nuclear deterrent, and he attacks Reform UK for proposing unfunded tax cuts. That is what Liz Truss did when she “blew up the ecconomy”, he says.
Starmer declines to rule out further cuts to aid budget to fund higher defence spending
Q: [From the Guardian’s Kiran Stacey] Will you rule out going back to the aid budget to fund raising the defence budget to 3% of GDP?
Starmer says cutting the aid budget was a difficult decision. He wants to work with other countries to get more money into aid spending. He says the best way to raise money for more public spending is by promoting growth.
Q: [From GB News] The Germans have warned that Russia could invade a Nato ally in four years. Don’t you need to go further and faster on raising defence spending?
Starmer says he is very alert to the continuing threat from Russia. It is already menacing our skies and waters, and threatening cyber attacks. The review will prepare Britain for this. The government is going further and faster, he says.
He says he also expects it to produce a defence dividend (jobs in the defence industry).
Q: Small boat crossings are up 42% from last year. Aren’t you failing to keep Britain safe?
Starmer says no one should be crossing the channel in small boats. He says Britain is cooperating with the French on this, and he says the border authorities are getting new powers through the border security bill.
Q: [From Beth Rigby from Sky News] What is your priority – reversing the winter fuel cut, getting rid of the two-child benefit cap, or getting defence spending up to 3% of GDP?
Starmer says he is committed to ensuring Nato can keep the peace for decades to come. The government’s commitment to it is “huge”, he says.
He says there are discussions about spending going into the Nato conference later this summer. But the focus is on making Nato effective for the future.
Q: On Gaza, is the UK planning any concrete action?
Starmer says what is happening is Gaza is “intolerable”. The government is pushing for a ceasefire, he says.
Starmer is now taking questions.
Q: [From Chris Mason from the BBC] Can you say unequivocally that this plan will be delivered? You are sounding a bit shaky on the finance.
Starmer says he is “100% confident” that these plans will be delivered. He says the review was based on defence spending going up to 2.5% of GDP, which is a firm commitment.
Starmer confirms the overnight announcement about commissioning up to 12 new attack submarines.
This will mean a new one being delivered every 18 months, he says,
Starmer says he wants UK to be fastest military innovator in Nato
Starmer says the world has changed, and that means “the front line, if you like, is here”.
He says the strategic defence review is “a blueprint to make Britain safer and stronger, a battle-ready, bomber-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities, equipped for the decades to come”.
He says the government will deliver three fundamental changes.
First, it is moving to war-fighting readiness.
We are moving to war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces.
When we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, the most effective way to deter them is to be ready, and frankly, to show them that we’re ready to deliver peace through strength.
Second, everything the government will do will add to the strength of Nato, he says.
And, third, the government will “accelerate innovation at a wartime pace”, he says. He says he wants the UK to be “the fastest innovator in Nato’.
Starmer says ‘every part of society, every citizen of this country’ has role to play in protecting country
Starmer says when he visited the nuclear submarine, the crew had an unofficial motto, “nothing works unless we all work together”.
He says defence policy should work in the same spirit. He says “every part of society, every citizen of this country, has a role to play” in protecting the country.
Starmer gives speech on strategic defence review
Keir Starmer is giving his speech in Glasgow now on the strategic defence review.
He starts by recalling his recent trip to visit the crew of a nuclear submarine as they returned to the Clyde after a long mission.
Farage claims he is offering Scotland ‘down to earth pragmatism’, not racism
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is in Scotland today, where he is holding a press conference in Aberdeen this morning and campaigning in Hamilton ahead of the byelection in the afternoon.
In an interview with the Scottish Sun published to coincide with the visit, Farage claims that Reform UK is offering “down to earth pragmatism”, not racism, as the SNP says. Farage told the Sun:
The Scottish establishment can hold me up to be the bogeyman, they’ll go on doing all those things.
But if people actually listen to what I have to say, they will not draw the conclusions that Swinney has drawn that this is somehow a racist, intolerant movement.
They’ll not draw the conclusion that I want to destroy the planet. What I’m offering people actually is down to earth pragmatism.
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, explained why he saw Reform UK as racist in a speech in February. He has revived that line of attack recently, condemning a Reform advert attacking Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, as racist.
More than 2,000 UK medics, including top consultants, sign letter denouncing Israel’s ‘assault on healthcare’ in Gaza
Patrick Wintour
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor.
More than 300 British health consultants and surgeons, as well as 1,100 NHS doctors, including many that have worked in Gaza, have joined forces to urge the Labour government to demand basic health services are protected and restored in Gaza.
In total 2,200 health workers have signed the open letter over the past three days that claims Israel is mounting a calculated assault on healthcare itself, as well as the Palestinian people.
It is one of the biggest interventions by UK health care professionals since the once total blockade of humanitarian aid started in March and came as the Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said the “reports of deaths near an aid delivery centre in Rafah were appalling and highlight the desperate need to get aid in”. The cause of the undenied mass casualties is disputed, with the Israeli Defence Forces insisting it was not involved.
The British health professionals include many who have volunteered to work in Gaza’s hospitals such as Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon and professor of conflict studies.
In their open letter adddressed to Keir Starmer the medics say:
Israel must allow partners to operate in line with humanitarian principles and deliver lifesaving aid.
In our respective professions we uphold a commitment to dignified care-giving and the sanctity of human life. These moral and political commitments demand that we act, not only to treat illness and injury, but to prevent harm and redress the underlying determinants of injury, trauma, and poor health …
Essential clinical equipment has been repeatedly and meticulously destroyed by the Israeli military. Healthcare workers in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine have been targeted, killed, injured, detained and tortured simply for providing healthcare.
This is not collateral damage – it is a calculated assault on healthcare itself, and on the future of the Palestinian people.
The authors of the letter urge the UK government not only back a complete arms embargo and a full ceasefire, but they also call for “unimpeded independent humanitarian access to independent neutral humanitarian agencies”.
The health workers also call for more Palestinian students to study in the UK, and for more Palestinian patients to be treated in UK healthcare.
Other signatories include: Prof Nick Maynard, consultant upper GI surgeon at Oxford University hospitals; Dr Rachel Clarke, palliative care physician and bestselling author; Prof Tim Goodacre, plastic surgeon; Dr Deborah Harrington, consultant in obstetrics and fetal medicine at Oxford University hospitals; and Dr Victoria Rose, consultant plastic surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital in London.
Some defence correspondents agree with Ed Davey and others who are saying the UK cannot wait until 2034 to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP.
This is from Deborah Haynes, the defence and security editor at Sky News.
PM @Keir_Starmer says he’s readying his military for war to deter Russia
Yet he’s unable to commit to lifting the defence budget to 3% of GDP by 2034 – a level that’s well short of what Donald Trump & the head of NATO are calling for
Allies/enemies will watch with dismay /glee
And this is from Shashank Joshi, defence editor at the Economist.
A 9-year timeline for 3% of GDP on defence—well outside OBR window, outside this Parliament & at upper boundary of Russian reconstitution timelines—and given new commitments incl 12 SSN-AUKUS, is unworkable and everyone knows it. Something has to give.
Ed Davey urges Starmer to convene cross-party talks on getting defence spending to 3% of GDP ‘as soon as possible’
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has criticised Keir Starmer for not setting a firm date for getting defence spending up to 3% of GDP. (See 8.24am.) Commenting on Starmer’s Today interview, Davey said:
Keir Starmer is showing a concerning lack of urgency on reaching 3%.
With Putin waging war, Trump undermining NATO and conflicts raging, we must deliver for our armed forces and Britain’s security in an increasingly unstable world. Anything less would be a dereliction of duty.
I once again urge the prime minister to convene cross-party talks to allow us to get to 3% as soon as possible, and faster than 2034.
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