Starmer in Paris for Armistice events but will also discuss implications of Republican’s victory in US presidential election
And this is what John Healey, the defence secretary, said about Labour’s plans for defence spending.
Healey said the government would set out a “pathway” to raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP after the defence review concludes in the spring of next year. Asked to defend why it was taking so long, he told LBC:
It’s a question of how much you spend but how you spend it and how well you spend it. If I said today look, we’ll spend 2.5% on defence, your next and immediate question would be well, how will you spend it?
That’s the purpose of the defence review that we’ve already launched – that Keir Starmer launched within a fortnight of Labour coming [into government].
He refused to commit the government reaching the 2.5% target before the next election. Asked on the Today programme if the target would be hit this parliament, he repeatedly sidestepped the question, just saying the pathway to 2.5% would be set out next year.
He said Ben Wallace, the former Tory defence secretary, was wrong to claim the government is not really raising defence spending because it is just re-allocating Ukraine spending from Treasury reserve spending to the defence budget. When this was put to him, Healey told Today:
Ben Wallace is factually incorrect. The £2.9bn extra next year comes on top of the £3bn this year for Ukraine, and those figures are set out in black and white in the budget documents, and anyone can go and check them, including Ben Wallace if he wants to do that for himself.
Healey said he did not expect the US to turn away from Nato under Trump. He told Sky News:
I don’t expect the US to turn away from Nato. They recognise the importance of the alliance. They recognise the importance of avoiding further conflict in Europe.
Healey said he expected the US under Trump to stand by Ukraine for “as long as it takes to prevail”. Asked if Trump’s win made Ukraine less safe, he told Sky News:
No, I don’t. The US alongside the UK have been two of the leading countries that have been standing by Ukraine, supporting Ukraine, our determination to do so is just as strong.
As far as President Trump goes, he recognises that countries get security through strength, just as alliances like Nato do, and I expect the US to remain alongside allies like the UK, standing with Ukraine for as long as it takes to prevail over Putin’s invasion.
But Healey also said the world would have to “wait and see” what Trump would do over Ukraine. He told BBC Breakfast:
We’ll have to wait and see what President Trump really proposes … but if the reports of his call with [Vladimir] Putin last week are right then President Trump is exactly right to warn Putin against escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.
Healey said Keir Starmer and President Macron would be discussing this morning what “more” they can do to support Ukraine.
Healey said it was for Ukraine to decide when it starts talking to Russia about peace. He said:
It’s Ukraine that gets to call when the talking starts. Our job is to support Ukraine, stand by them when they fight, stand by them if they decide to talk.
This could be ended today if Putin withdrew following his illegal invasion … that’s the way this conflict could be ended, and the importance for us for Europe and for the United States is that Putin in the long run does not prevail, because if he does prevail, he will not stop at Ukraine, and the cost to us all will be much greater in the future.
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