Labour’s defence plans branded a ‘pantomime’ as Keir Starmer heads to bruising Nato summit with Donald Trump
Labor’s defense plans have been branded a ‘pantomime’ as new figures reveal Russian jets are testing NATO’s defenses on average once a day.
Keir Starmer will head to what looks like a painful NATO summit in Türkiye on Tuesday morning, amid warnings that he is failing to protect the UK.
Downing Street is preparing for the latest blow from Donald Trump after US officials accused countries such as the UK of ‘falling behind’ NATO spending targets.
And in a worrying development, it was revealed last week that a Russian plane had buzzed into the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
The warship quickly moved two F-35 fighter jets to shadow the Russian maritime patrol aircraft, which in turn dropped a series of sonic buoys near the British aircraft carrier in an apparent provocation.
Downing Street described the maneuver in the Norwegian Sea as ‘unsafe and unprofessional’.
Government sources revealed that this was one of 700 attacks that NATO jets have had to deal with in the last two years; This means, on average, almost one attack per day.
Kemi Badenoch said Vladimir Putin’s action was a ‘test’ to show the government had failed.
Humiliation: Officials fear Donald Trump may try to embarrass the Prime Minister over defense at this week’s NATO summit (they were pictured together in August last year)
Conflict: An F-35 jet launched from HMS Prince of Wales shadows a Russian military aircraft as it drops a sound device, attached
Target: HMS Prince of Wales was in the Norwegian Sea
Reckless: Vladimir Putin
In his speech on Tuesday, the Conservative leader will warn that Britain’s defense policy has become a ‘pantomime’ at a time when the threat is the most serious since the end of the Cold War.
Ms Badenoch will urge Andy Burnham to accept an offer to help implement welfare cuts to help fund defense investment. But he will warn the future prime minister is ‘saying nothing’ about the growing threats facing Britain.
He will say, ‘We are sending a Prime Minister who is now completely powerless to that NATO summit.’
‘And he’s taking with him a Defense Investment Plan that he knows is not fit for purpose. It is barely half the additional funding our armed forces need.
‘So little that the former Defense Secretary left the government because he thought the plans would endanger British troops.’
Sir Keir will tell NATO allies this week that the controversial Defense Investment Plan (DIP) represents a significant step towards meeting NATO’s target of spending 3.5 per cent on defense by 2035. But this plan only commits the UK to reaching 2.7 per cent by the end of the decade.
New Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis said Labor would ‘dedicate resources to prove a move to 3.5 per cent’ in next year’s spending review. But neither No 10 nor Mr Burnham have agreed on a timetable so far.
NATO chief Mark Rutte said he expected member states to produce “clear, concrete and credible” plans to achieve the 3.5 percent target.
No 10 fears Mr Trump could use this week’s summit to belittle Sir Keir over defense spending.
Speaking at the weekend, he said ‘weak’ British leaders had allowed the country to become ‘a deindustrialised welfare zone unable to stop Third World men arriving on boats’.
The two leaders are not expected to hold a formal meeting this week, although it will be Sir Keir’s last appearance on the world stage before leaving office. However, Downing Street said they would sit side by side at the summit meeting tomorrow and insisted their relationship would remain ‘constructive’.
Ahead of the summit, Putin sent a clear message to defense chiefs about Russia’s willingness to threaten its member states, including the UK.
It has been revealed how a Russian plane made a “near danger” low pass of HMS Prince of Wales while the £3.5bn aircraft carrier was operating in the Norwegian Sea.
After ignoring requests from the carrier’s control room, a Bear-F maritime patrol aircraft dropped dozens of sonobuoy shells near HMS Prince of Wales that could have injured sailors or damaged the ship.
British commanders deployed two F-35 jets from HMS Prince of Wales to shadow Russian aircraft in the ship’s first ‘real-time’ engagement with enemy forces.
The Royal Navy has released information about the incident on July 2 for the first time.
At the time, HMS Prince of Wales was sailing as part of the United Kingdom’s Carrier Strike Group, comprising the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Tidespring and the Type-45 destroyer HMS Duncan, which conducted free navigation patrols in the High North.
The purpose of Arctic Sentry patrols is to strengthen security. The clash came just weeks after Britain first captured a Russian shadow fleet ship in the English Channel and a few weeks after a Russian fighter jet flew within meters of a Royal Air Force intelligence-gathering aircraft patrolling over the Black Sea.
