2 hours ago
11
There was much anticipation ahead of Labour’s first budget in almost 15 years, with the public warned of tough choices in the wake of a £22bn ‘black hole’ left by their Tory predecessors. When it comes to military spending however, today’s statement was already a boon for the MoD, with a near £3 billion boost trailed ahead of the official announcement. More is promised following next year’s Strategic Defence Review.
“There is no more important job for government, than to keep our country safe,” claimed Chancellor Rachel Reeves, before announcing an extra £2.9 billion in funding for the military. That’s on top of the £54.2 billion announced by her Tory predecessor, Jeremy Hunt, in this year’s Spring budget. While this falls short of the 2.5% of GDP that the government aspires to spend on the military budget, today’s figures are a step in that direction. They are also a statement of intent for Labour to continue down the path of militarism at the expense of public services and the climate emergency.
Reeves also spoke of restoring stability to Britain. The reality is far from that – with a pledge to fund Ukraine’s military to the tune of £3 billion per year “for as long as it takes.” This ensures continued destabilisation in Europe and pushes us closer to towards to open war between NATO and Russia, risking nuclear war.
Labour is also committed to the runaway spending on replacing Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system, which currently costs £12,000 per minute, and in excess of £205 billion life time costs. Spending on the new Dreadnought-class submarines has been kept deliberately opaque. However, the National Audit Office predict the replacement of Trident will rise by £99 billion over the next decade. Major safety incidents like today’s fire at the BAE Systems nuclear shipyard in Barrow, raise further questions over who will be footing the bill for any potential damage caused to the submarines currently under construction.
CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said:
“The military spending announced today has nothing to do with keeping the British public safe and everything to do with marching in lock step with US foreign policy and kowtowing to NATO spending demands. Last week’s quiet acquiescence by most MPs to the extension of the Mutual Defence Agreement – the treaty which underpins Washington and Westminster’s special nuclear relationship – is another indicator of this. Next year’s Strategic Defence Review is guaranteed to come dripping with even more demands to spend, spend, spend on grandiose white elephants, packaged in the guise of public security.
Massive sinkhole projects like a new fleet of nuclear-armed submarines and unfit aircraft carriers will continue to be a drain on public finances with little scrutiny by the media or politicians. It’s time to scrap these wasteful and dangerous vanity projects and divert these funds into public good.”
Image credit: Kirsty O’Connor / HM Treasury via Flickr
The post Spending billions more on defence will drive insecurity not restore stability appeared first on CND.
