Boris Johnson scored an own goal over Brexit at G7 despite favourable conditions
An England football victory as the G7 summit wrapped up in Cornwall was something to celebrate, but even with a home advantage, Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not emerge from this global gathering with a win.
This was a big opportunity for Mr Johnson and in favourable conditions.
Serendipitous that the UK was the host nation in its year of Brexit – this the perfect setting to prove global Britain was more than just an empty slogan at a moment when western democracies wanted to turn the page on the bad tempered years of Donald Trump and make the summit work.
And yet, it became an opportunity missed – with the prime minister managing over the course of the weekend to score an own goal over Brexit.
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Boris Johnson has told Sky News that some Europeans don’t understand that the UK is a ‘single country’
In his closing remarks, Mr Johnson said the issue of post-Brexit trading relationships in Northern Ireland – the protocol agreed in the 2019 Withdrawal Agreement – took up a “vanishingly small” part of these global deliberations.
But it certainly loomed large in the minds of President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders as they jetted out of Cornwall after Mr Johnson – offered an opportunity by President Biden to park the issue for the duration of this summit on Thursday – fanned the tensions.
The PM used his broadcast round to warn European leaders that he would do “whatever it takes” to protect the integrity of the UK and was prepared to invoke Article 16 of the protocol, which allows either side to take unilateral action if its implementation were to lead to “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
And he didn’t stop there; asked if he thought a trade war was coming around the corner he replied: “I think it highly unlikely.
“But if I may say so, I’ve talked to some of our friends here today who do seem to misunderstand that the UK is a single country and a single territory. I think they just need to get that into their heads.”
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Dominic Raab demands respect over Northern Ireland
Sources within the UK delegation then doubled down on this overnight by claiming President Macron had told the prime minister that Great Britain and Northern Ireland were not the same country, a remark that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday he found “offensive”.
A diplomatic row then that could have been avoided entirely (this weekend at least) stoked up by the UK.
President Macron left irritated, telling reporters at his closing press conference that the two sides should stop wasting time on disputes about sausages when there are bigger global issues to tackle, pointedly telling Mr Johnson: “Let’s not waste time with controversies that are created in corridors and backrooms.”
The singular ambition of this summit is to demonstrate that the world’s wealthy liberal democracies can work together – the G7 a force for good in a world beset by problems – and there was some progress on the vaccination programme, as well as pitch rolling to implement the 2009 Copenhagen commitment, which pledged to give $100bn-a-year from public and private sources to help developing countries to transition to green energy, in time for COP26 in November.
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The PM denied any accusations of ‘moral failure’ over vaccines at the G7
But it’s true too that the row over the implementation of the Brexit deal repeatedly disturbed this summit.
And it’s true too that these European leaders – and President Biden too – are united in their differences with Mr Johnson over the post-Brexit settlement.
The host of this summit learned that global Britain when you’re no longer part of the gang is a lonely place to be. An opportunity missed.
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There is “no doubt” the UK “will spend 3% of our GDP on defence” in the next parliament, the defence secretary has said.
John Healey’s comments come ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on Monday.
This is an assessment of the state of the armed forces, the threats facing the UK, and the military transformation required to meet them.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously set out a “clear ambition” to raise defence spending to 3% in the next parliament “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.
Mr Healey has now told The Times newspaper there is a “certain decade of rising defence spending” to come, adding that this commitment “allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.”
A government source insisted the defence secretary was “expressing an opinion, which is that he has full confidence that the government will be able to deliver on its ambition”, rather than making a new commitment.
The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with Sir Keir announcing plans to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 in February.
This followed mounting pressure from the White House for European nations to do more to take on responsibility for their own security and the defence of Ukraine.
The 2.3% to 2.5% increase is being paid for by controversial cuts to the international aid budget, but there are big questions over where the funding for a 3% rise would be found, given the tight state of government finances.
While a commitment will help underpin the planning assumptions made in the SDR, there is of course no guarantee a Labour government would still be in power during the next parliament to have to fulfil that pledge.
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From March: How will the UK scale up defence?
A statement from the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that the official government position has not changed in line with the defence secretary’s comments.
The statement reads: “This government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5bn this financial year.
“The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in NATO, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.”
Sir Keir commissioned the review shortly after taking office in July 2024. It is being led by Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary and NATO secretary general.
The Ministry of Defence has already trailed a number of announcements as part of the review, including plans for a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command and a £1bn battlefield system known as the Digital Targeting Web, which we’re told will “better connect armed forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster”.
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PM Sir Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey on a nuclear submarine earlier this year. Pic: Crown Copyright 2025
On Saturday, the defence secretary announced a £1.5bn investment to tackle damp, mould and make other improvements to poor quality military housing in a bid to improve recruitment and retention.
Mr Healey pledged to “turn round what has been a national scandal for decades”, with 8,000 military family homes currently unfit for habitation.
He said: “The Strategic Defence Review, in the broad, will recognise that the fact that the world is changing, threats are increasing.
“In this new era of threat, we need a new era for defence and so the Strategic Defence Review will be the vision and direction for the way that we’ve got to strengthen our armed forces to make us more secure at home, stronger abroad, but also learn the lessons from Ukraine as well.
“So an armed forces that can be more capable of innovation more quickly, stronger to deter the threats that we face and always with people at the heart of our forces… which is why the housing commitments that we make through this strategic defence review are so important for the future.”
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