Politics LIVE: Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband at war as Labour defence row explodes | Politics | News

Labor has been described as “quite a mess” over delays to its defense investment plan.

Conservative shadow defense secretary James Cartlidge told Times Radio: “I think the real serious thing is, as you report every day, there is conflict in the Middle East again, the long-running war in Ukraine has begun once again.”

“We desperately need to spend more money on defence; everyone knows that, regardless of policy. And you would think that with all the delays we’ve had, months and months of delays, they would have figured out how to pay for it and they still haven’t been able to do it, and I think that’s quite a sophisticated behavior from the Government at the moment.”

Mr Cartlidge said taxes should not be increased for the sake of the increase after Sir Keir Starmer refused to rule out the move yesterday.

He added that the Conservatives would make big cuts to the “spiraling” welfare budget to push for more defense spending.