CALLS for the UK Government to spend billions more on “off-the-shelf” bombs and drones have sparked alarm.
Labour have already pledged to increase defence spending after Donald Trump demanded European nations – including America’s Nato allies – to beef up their militaries and are now facing calls to go further.
The Times reports that an anonymous defence industry source said: “We can ramp up the production of munitions and drones quickly.
"But we need the Government to put in the orders rather than just give us warm words.”
Shadow armed forces minister Mark Francois (below) said the Government must urgently increase “off-the-shelf procurement” of munitions, adding: “Given the situation in Ukraine, threats to Taiwan and ongoing instability in the Middle East, we cannot possibly wait a decade to improve the combat readiness of our armed forces.”
The UK Government is expected to publish its strategic defence review before June. It is led by Lord Robertson, former Nato general secretary, who said the project was a chance to “shape our military for the new century”.
Anti-war campaigners have sounded the alarm over the comments, saying that increased military spending will not improve the country’s security.
Lindsey German, national convenor of Stop the War, told The National that claims from Western governments increases were necessary to face down Russian aggression were “lies”.
She said: “We opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the outset, but this drive to ramp up defence spending is based on a series of lies about the extent of the Russian threat, including the strength and size of its economy and military capability.
“Russia’s economy and its military spending is dwarfed by the rest of the EU.
“It also assumes that an arms race and pivot to military spending will enhance security. The opposite is true.”
German added that while the profits of defence companies “pulling the Prime Minister’s strings” were “guaranteed”, public services would suffer.
“What is spent on military and ‘defence’ will come from the budgets for overseas aid, and also from care, education, housing, health and other public services and now the proposed vicious cut in disability benefits for some of the poorest in society,” she added.
David MacKenzie, secretary of the pressure group Secure Scotland, added: “This ramping up of military spending is not about real security.”
He said that the Government should instead consider “the commonweal” which would look after the “welfare needs of all humanity and the non-human natural world”.
MacKenzie added: “The UK Government, the arms industry and the armchair warmongers are a million miles from that essential understanding. And of course, the obvious. After Afghanistan, Iraq and the other disastrous adventures the last thing we should do is to allow the UK and its allies to engage in another foray.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie backed calls from across Europe to boost military spending but said the money should not be found by raiding the international development and welfare budgets.
Some £6 billion is expected to be cut from both foreign aid and social security and the Greens MSP said money should instead be found by scrapping Trident and imposing a wealth tax.
Harvie (above) said: “In the face of the extraordinary changes in the US, which is now aligning with a brutal, expansionist Russia and against democratic countries, the case is obviously being made for Europe taking more responsibility for its own security.
“But Labour are funding this by slashing international aid, and are now threatening to cut vital lifelines which people rely on such as Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment and Winter Fuel Payments. It is horrific to see such warped priorities, as they sacrifice people’s wellbeing while point-blank refusing to even consider a wealth tax.”
He added: “The UK already has one of the biggest military budgets in the world, and a great deal of it is wasted on an immoral and unusable nuclear weapons system, which doesn’t meet the real security threats the country faces.
“Labour seem determined to betray the people who voted for change and who wanted a government that would protect them. Sadly they have instead adopted the kind of brutal austerity that the country suffered from under the Tories.”
