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Starmer to announce commissioning of up to 12 new attack submarines
As mentioned earlier, the Ministry of Defence has been trailing parts of the strategic defence review for days. Here are three press releases they issued last week and over the weekend.
And here is an extract from the news release issued overnight, saying Keir Starmer will announce the commissioning of up to 12 new attack submarines. The MoD says:
The prime minister will announce … that the UK’s conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine fleet will be significantly expanded, with up to 12 new SSN-AUKUS boats to be built.
The increase in submarines will transform the UK’s submarine building industry and, following the £15 billion investment in the warhead programme outlined, will deliver on this government’s Plan for Change, supporting 30,000 highly skilled jobs up-and-down the country well into the 2030s, as well as helping work to deliver 30,000 apprenticeships and 14,000 graduate roles across the next ten years.
The announcement comes as the government unveils its new strategic defence review tomorrow. The externally-led review is expected to recommend that our armed forces move to warfighting readiness to deter the growing threats faced by the UK. The report makes 62 recommendations, which the government is expected to accept in full.
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Starmer defends not yet setting firm date for getting defence spending up to 3% of GDP, saying he rejects 'performative fantasy politics'
Starmer repeats his claim that he has an ambition to get defence spending up to 3% of GDP in the next parliament.
Q: But “ambition” is not a commitment. I can have a commitment to lose weight. That does not mean it will happen.
Starmer defends not making a firm commitment.
He says, during the election campaign, he said he wanted defence spending to rise to 2.5% of GDP, but did not set a date because he did not have a plan for achieving that.
He only set a date for 2.5% when he had an economic plan for achieving it.
He goes on:
What you can take from this is, yes, that 3% but I am not, as the prime minister of a Labour government, going to make a commitment as to the precise date until I can be sure precisely where the money is coming from, how we can make good on that commitment, because I don’t believe in performative fantasy politics, and certainly not on defence and security.
Q: But it is more than a phrase. Are you saying you think you might have to send British troops to fight to defend a county like Lithuania?
Starmer replies: “I very much hope not.”
But the country has to prepare, he says.
He says people did not expect to see a European country invaded. But then Russia invaded Ukraine.
Q: There is talk of having planes that can deliver nuclear weapons. Won’t that make nuclear war more likely?
Starmer says he does not want to talk about the proposal for air-launched nuclear weapons. (The Sunday Times said yesterday Starmer is considering this as an option.)
Q: But we know that in the past governments like Callaghan’s have lied about their nuclear programmes. Can you assure us you are not preparing for nuclear escalation?
Starmer says the nuclear deterrent has kept the peace for 80 years. That is why the UK is fully committed to Nato, he says.
Nato has been the single most effective alliance for keeping the peace for 80 years, and our job is not just to celebrate that as we do, but to ask ourselves the searching question as I ask myself on a daily basis, which is, how do we ensure that Nato preserves the peace for decades to come for this generation?
Starmer interviewed on Today programme
Nick Robinson is interviewing Keir Starmer on the Today programme now.
Q: What do you mean when you say you want the UK to be “war ready”?
Starmer says the world has changed.
There is greater instability on defence and security than there has been for many, many years, and greater threats, and that’s obviously having a direct impact back into the United Kingdom. Hence the review. I wanted a review that told me the challenges we’re actually facing and likely to face for the foreseeable future.
Starmer says the best way to prevent conflict is to deter it. That is why Nato is so important, he says.
Starmer to announce commissioning of up to 12 new attack submarines
As mentioned earlier, the Ministry of Defence has been trailing parts of the strategic defence review for days. Here are three press releases they issued last week and over the weekend.
And here is an extract from the news release issued overnight, saying Keir Starmer will announce the commissioning of up to 12 new attack submarines. The MoD says:
The prime minister will announce … that the UK’s conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine fleet will be significantly expanded, with up to 12 new SSN-AUKUS boats to be built.
The increase in submarines will transform the UK’s submarine building industry and, following the £15 billion investment in the warhead programme outlined, will deliver on this government’s Plan for Change, supporting 30,000 highly skilled jobs up-and-down the country well into the 2030s, as well as helping work to deliver 30,000 apprenticeships and 14,000 graduate roles across the next ten years.
The announcement comes as the government unveils its new strategic defence review tomorrow. The externally-led review is expected to recommend that our armed forces move to warfighting readiness to deter the growing threats faced by the UK. The report makes 62 recommendations, which the government is expected to accept in full.
Keir Starmer to unveil strategic defence review and put UK on ‘war-fighting readiness’
Good morning. In his great history of 20th century Britain, The Rise and Fall of the British Nation, David Edgerton uses the phrase “warfare state” to describe the UK under the post-war Attlee government, and its successors. He does so to make the point that, although we think of that period as the era of the welfare state, defence spending was still huge (around 10% of GDP in the early 1950s). Keir Starmer is not going to get anywhere close to that, but “warfare state” still feels like a useful term to describe at least the direction in which he wants to shove Britain, as the strategic defence review being published today will indicate.
Starmer will be interviewed on the Today programme shortly. Here is Dan Sabbagh’s overnight preview story on what the defence review will say.
And here is Dan’s analysis, based on what we know so far about the document (which is quite a lot, because the Ministry of Defence has been trailing bits of it for days).
Here is the agenda for the day.
8.10am: Keir Starmer is interviewed on the Today programme.
9.30am: The Speaker’s Conference on the security of candidates publishes an interim report.
10am: Starmer launches the strategic defence review at an event in Glasgow, where he will be taking questions from journalists.
10am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference in Aberdeen. Later, in the afternoon, he will be campaigning in Hamilton, where there is a Scottish parliamentary byelection on Thursday.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Yvette Cooper, home secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.10pm: Peers debate Commons amendments to the data (use and access) bill, in the latest stage in the stand-off between the two chambers over AI and copywright law.
After 3.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the strategic defence review.
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