New defence review just does not add up

THE Labour government spent a lot of time last week trumpeting their strategic defence review, but quite a lot less explaining what was actually in it.

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The Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary, John Healey, tried to give the impression that they were making a significant commitment to our armed forces. But on closer questioning, they turned out to have very little inclination to commit themselves to anything.

Keir Starmer insisted it would make the country “battle-ready”, but the report didn’t actually get round to mentioning the Army, Navy and RAF until page 104, and there was precious little detail about what additional resources they will be receiving.

The review, put together by the former Labour defence secretary Lord Robertson, made it clear that, to meet the grand ambitions that Labour claims to be delivering, funding will need to be much higher than the 2.5% on offer (up just 0.2% on current spending).