UK’s nuclear deterrent the ‘bedrock’ in Labour plans to keep Britain safe, Sir Keir Starmer says
Sir Keir Starmer will announce later today that the UK’s nuclear deterrent is the “bedrock” of his plan to keep Britain safe.
If elected, the Labour leader plans for his party to prioritise defence procurement to strengthen UK security and economic growth, with an aim to direct British defence investment to British business first, with a higher bar set for any decision to buy abroad.
It comes as Sir Keir confirmed his ambition was to boost the defence budget to 2.5% of GDP, if it fits with Labour’s fiscal rules, according to an interview with the i newspaper.
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He is expected to make the announcement during a trip to a shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, to see nuclear submarines being built – the first visit of its kind by a Labour leader in more than 30 years.
Sir Keir is set to say: “The changed Labour Party I lead knows that our nation’s defence must always come first. Labour’s commitment to our nuclear deterrent is total.
“In the face of rising global threats and growing Russian aggression, the UK’s nuclear deterrent is the bedrock of Labour’s plan to keep Britain safe. It will ensure vital protection for the UK and our Nato allies in the years ahead, as well as supporting thousands of high-paying jobs across the UK.”
The Labour leader will also affirm the party’s commitment to the Aukus security pact and will pledge that the submarines should be built in Barrow “for decades to come”.
Pic: PA
During the visit, Sir Keir will speak to workers, union members and apprentices from the shipyard, alongside shadow defence secretary, John Healey, and Australian high commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith.
The party is set to campaign on its commitment to the nuclear deterrent in key communities in the nuclear supply chain, including: Plymouth Moor View, home to the Devonport shipyard; Filton and Bradley Stoke, home of Abbey Wood; and Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber, home to HMNB Clyde.
Mr Healey will add: “A strong defence industrial strategy will be hardwired into Labour’s mission 1 in government to drive economic growth across the UK. We will make it fundamental to direct defence investment first to British jobs and British industry.”
Construction of the Ambush submarine in Barrow-in Furness. File pic: PA
‘Attempted distraction’ and ‘grotesque’ visit
Reacting to Sir Keir’s shipyard visit, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps claimed the trip was an “attempted distraction” from the “scandal” surrounding Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, who is continuing to face questions over her living arrangements and tax affairs before she became an MP.
He said Sir Keir and Mr Healey, “tried twice to put Jeremy Corbyn in charge of the nation’s armed forces”.
Referring to David Lammy, he said Labour’s shadow foreign secretary “even voted repeatedly to scrap Trident”.
“They are not the party to be trusted with our nation’s defences,” he added.
“This is just another attempted distraction from the Angela Rayner scandal. If Sir Keir Starmer cannot show leadership on this issue, how can he be trusted to make decision on national security.”
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‘Is spending 2.5% of GDP on defence enough?’
The SNP, which opposes having a nuclear deterrent in the UK, also criticised the visit as “grotesque” and accused Labour of throwing “billions more down the drain”.
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The party’s defence spokesperson Martin Docherty-Hughes said: “Westminster has already wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on nuclear weapons and expensive nuclear energy.
“It is therefore grotesque that Sir Keir Starmer is prepared to throw billions more down the drain when his party claim there is no money to improve our NHS, help families with the cost of living or to properly invest in our green energy future.
“This money would be better spent on a raft of other things – not least investing in the green energy gold rush, which would ensure Scotland, with all its renewable energy potential, could be a green energy powerhouse of the 21st century.”
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Politics
Norman Tebbit: Former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government dies aged 94
Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.
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