The government has been accused of “spin and tinkering” over an announcement about an increase in defence spending which falls far short of what is needed, Sky News understands.
An entire fleet of military helicopters – the Royal Air Force’s Puma aircraft – was retired this week as part of a cost-saving plan to scrap older kit that was announced in November.
The sight of old but still airworthy helicopters being taken out of service before a replacement is ready – creating a capability gap – contrasts with statements by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and John Healey, the defence secretary, about boosting the defence budget.
Image: The Puma aircraft’s last flight. Pic: UK MOD
Sir Ben Wallace, the longest-serving Conservative defence secretary, said he had expected better given the urgent need to rearm at a time of heightened threats and following Donald Trump’s warnings to Europe to stop relying on the United States to bankroll its security.
“We are at the dawn of a new era of insecurity across the world,” Sir Ben said.
“The US has warned us for a decade about not taking them for granted, and we all did nothing. In Germany, Poland, and France the penny has dropped and they have embraced a necessary culture change and re-prioritisation of government spend.
“In the UK, the government still thinks it is about spin and tinkering. It fools no one, and we risk losing our credibility and leadership on defence amongst allies.”
Image: Sir Ben Wallace. Pic: Reuters
In her spring statement on Wednesday, the chancellor announced an extra £2.2bn for defence this coming financial year.
Ms Reeves told MPs it was a further “down payment” on a promise by the prime minister to lift expenditure on defence to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027. Defence spending is currently around 2.3% of gross national income. The new money will help inch it up to 2.36%.
The chancellor, defence secretary and prime minister have repeatedly phrased their plan to inject cash into the armed forces over this parliament as “the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War”.
But defence insiders say, while any new money is welcome, this claim is more spin than substance because the defence budget largely suffered repeated cuts since the Soviet Union collapsed.
Image: Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an additional £2.2bn in defence spending in her spring statement. Pic: PA
Also, focusing on a slogan does not answer the question of whether an extra £2bn over the next 12 months is enough to transform the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force at the speed that is necessary, they said.
Asked whether it was sufficient, multiple military sources and a defence industry source collectively said “no”.
“This is just another sticking plaster that overlooks decades of underinvestment and chronic financial mismanagement of our armed forces,” the defence industry source said.
“Increasing spending or a focus on ‘novel technologies’ ignores the fact that we have let a broken system flourish.
“Time and time again, we see celebration over procuring outdated solutions while their manufacturers get away with significant delays or overspends with seemingly few repercussions.
“While we continue to spin and fight over tiny percentages of spending, we are allowing our armed forces to get hollowed out in front of us, hoping that government soundbites will provide the deterrence that our current equipment can’t.”
Image: Defence Secretary John Healey on a nuclear submarine on 17 March. Pic: Crown copyright 2025
A military source said the additional £2.2bn for the year to March 2026 was a step in the right direction, but said it would merely keep defence on “life support”.
The situation only starts to improve marginally in two years’ time when the defence budget is finally forecast to hit 2.5% of GDP, the source said.
This is despite the UK being a leading member of the “coalition of the willing”, with Sir Keir Starmer pledging to deploy forces to secure any ceasefire deal in Ukraine – a move that would put huge additional strain on his already stretched armed forces.
Image: PM Sir Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey on a nuclear submarine. Pic: Crown Copyright 2025
While the UK talks about 2.5% for the defence budget, Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, says allies must spend more than 3%, while Mr Trump wants them to aim for 5%.
In 2020, Boris Johnson, as the prime minister, said a plan to increase the defence budget by £16bn over four years, on top of a commitment to lift defence spending by 0.5% above inflation for each year of the parliament – so what was described at the time as an additional £24bn in total – was the biggest boost to defence expenditure since the Cold War.
Sir Keir has added the word “sustained” when describing the size of his defence spending boost – though that will depend upon the accuracy of forecasts that GDP will expand at the rate predicted in the coming years.
Sir Ben said: “The UK is facing some of the highest threats in a generation, yet John Healey thinks spin is the appropriate response. He fools no one – not the men and women of the armed forces and not our enemies. I had expected better of him.”
While the politicians talk, so many people come from around the world to try to get across the Channel on small boats. But why?
Why make such a perilous crossing to try to get to a country that seems to be getting increasingly hostile to asylum seekers?
As the British and French leaders meet, with small boats at the forefront of their agenda, we came to northern France to get some answers.
It is not a new question, but it is peppered with fresh relevance.
Over the course of a morning spent around a migrant camp in Dunkirk, we meet migrantsfrom Gaza, Iraq, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and beyond.
Some are fearful, waving us away; some are happy to talk. Very few are comfortable to be filmed.
All but one man – who says he’s come to the wrong place and actually wants to claim asylum in Paris – are intent on reaching Britain.
They see the calm seas, feel the light winds – perfect conditions for small boat crossings.
John has come here from South Sudan. He tells me he’s now 18 years old. He left his war-torn home nation just before his 16th birthday. He feels that reaching Britain is his destiny.
“England is my dream country,” he says. “It has been my dream since I was at school. It’s the country that colonised us and when I get there, I will feel like I am home.
“In England, they can give me an opportunity to succeed or to do whatever I need to do in my life. I feel like I am an English child, who was born in Africa.”
Image: ‘England is my dream country,’ John tells Adam Parsons
He says he would like to make a career in England, either as a journalist or in human resources, and, like many others we meet, is at pains to insist he will work hard.
The boat crossing is waved away as little more than an inconvenience – a trifle compared with the previous hardships of his journey towards Britain.
We meet a group of men who have all travelled from Gaza, intent on starting new lives in Britain and then bringing their families over to join them.
One man, who left Gaza two years ago, tells me that his son has since been shot in the leg “but there is no hospital for him to go to”.
Next to him, a man called Abdullah says he entered Europe through Greece and stayed there for months on end, but was told the Greek authorities would never allow him to bring over his family.
Britain, he thinks, will be more accommodating. “Gaza is being destroyed – we need help,” he says.
Image: Abdullah says ‘Gaza is being destroyed – we need help’
A man from Eritreatells us he is escaping a failing country and has friends in Britain – he plans to become a bicycle courier in either London or Manchester.
He can’t stay in France, he says, because he doesn’t speak French. The English language is presented as a huge draw for many of the people we talk to, just as it had been during similar conversations over the course of many years.
I ask many of these people why they don’t want to stay in France, or another safe European country.
Some repeat that they cannot speak the language and feel ostracised. Another says that he tried, and failed, to get a residency permit in both France and Belgium.
But this is also, clearly, a flawed survey. Last year, five times as many people sought asylum in France as in Britain.
And French critics have long insisted that Britain, a country without a European-style ID card system, makes itself attractive to migrants who can “disappear”.
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Migrant Channel crossings hit new record
A young man from Iraq, with absolutely perfect English, comes for a chat. He oozes confidence and a certain amount of mischief.
It has taken him only seven days to get from Iraq to Dunkirk; when I ask how he has made the trip so quickly, he shrugs. “Money talks”.
He looks around him. “Let me tell you – all of these people you see around you will be getting to Britain and the first job they get will be in the black market, so they won’t be paying any tax.
“Back in the day in Britain, they used to welcome immigrants very well, but these days I don’t think they want to, because there’s too many of them coming by boat. Every day it’s about seven or 800 people. That’s too many people.”
“But,” I ask, “if those people are a problem – then what makes you different? Aren’t you a problem too?”
He shakes his head emphatically. “I know that I’m a very good guy. And I won’t be a problem. I’ll only stay in Britain for a few years and then I’ll leave again.”
A man from Sri Lanka says he “will feel safe” when he gets to Britain; a tall, smiling man from Ethiopia echoes the sentiment: “We are not safe in our home country so we have come all this way,” he says. “We want to work, to be part of Britain.”
Emmanuel is another from South Sudan – thoughtful and eloquent. He left his country five years ago – “at the start of COVID” – and has not seen his children in all that time. His aim is to start a new life in Britain, and then to bring his family to join him.
He is a trained electrical engineer, but says he could also work as a lorry driver. He is adamant that Britain has a responsibility to the people of its former colony.
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Emmanuel Macron has said the UK and France have a “shared responsibility” to tackle the “burden” of illegal migration, as he urged co-operation between London and Paris ahead of a crunch summit later this week.
Addressing parliament in the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday, the French president said the UK-France summit would bring “cooperation and tangible results” regarding the small boats crisis in the Channel.
Image: King Charles III at the State Banquet for President of France Emmanuel Macron. Pic: PA
Mr Macron – who is the first European leader to make a state visit to the UK since Brexit – told the audience that while migrants’ “hope for a better life elsewhere is legitimate”, “we cannot allow our countries’ rules for taking in people to be flouted and criminal networks to cynically exploit the hopes of so many individuals with so little respect for human life”.
“France and the UK have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness,” he added.
Looking ahead to the UK-France summit on Thursday, he promised the “best ever cooperation” between France and the UK “to fix today what is a burden for our two countries”.
Sir Keir Starmer will hope to reach a deal with his French counterpart on a “one in, one out” migrant returns deal at the key summit on Thursday.
King Charles also addressed the delegations at a state banquet in Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, saying the summit would “deepen our alliance and broaden our partnerships still further”.
Image: King Charles speaking at state banquet welcoming Macron.
Sitting next to President Macron, the monarch said: “Our armed forces will cooperate even more closely across the world, including to support Ukraine as we join together in leading a coalition of the willing in defence of liberty and freedom from oppression. In other words, in defence of our shared values.”
In April, British officials confirmed a pilot scheme was being considered to deport migrants who cross the English Channel in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers in France with legitimate claims.
The two countries have engaged in talks about a one-for-one swap, enabling undocumented asylum seekers who have reached the UK by small boat to be returned to France.
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Britain would then receive migrants from France who would have a right to be in the UK, like those who already have family settled here.
The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.
Image: President Macron greets Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at his address to parliament in Westminster.
Elsewhere in his speech, the French president addressed Brexit, and said the UK could not “stay on the sidelines” despite its departure from the European Union.
He said European countries had to break away from economic dependence on the US and China.
“Our two countries are among the oldest sovereign nations in Europe, and sovereignty means a lot to both of us, and everything I referred to was about sovereignty, deciding for ourselves, choosing our technologies, our economy, deciding our diplomacy, and deciding the content we want to share and the ideas we want to share, and the controversies we want to share.
“Even though it is not part of the European Union, the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines because defence and security, competitiveness, democracy – the very core of our identity – are connected across Europe as a continent.”
The Princess of Wales and celebrities attended the King’s star-studded state banquet on Tuesday, where Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
On the first day of Mr Macron’s state visit, King Charles gave a toast in French and said the three-day trip was another chance to “celebrate a deep and enduring friendship”.
“What’s possibly the most remarkable thing is the way in which the speciality of one country is part of the story of the other,” the monarch said.
“For centuries, our citizens have admired one another. We’ve made each other laugh, and we’ve imitated one another.”
Image: The Prince and Princess of Wales at the State Banquet. Pic: PA
Image: The banquet hall at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
Image: The King makes a speech at a banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
Image: King Charles looks at Emmanuel Macron at a state banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
After the King’s speech, Mr Macron told him France had a “real affection for your mother” Queen Elizabeth II, adding he believed the feeling was “reciprocal”.
“She was your queen,” he said. “To us, she was the Queen.”
He capped off his speech – which repeated his calls for closer relations that he made earlier in the Palace of Westminster – by saying: “In honour of the United Kingdom, of this entente amico that unites our two fraternal peoples in an unwavering alliance.
“Long live the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland! Long live France!”
Image: Emmanuel Macron gives a speech at a state banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
The Princess of Wales also made her first appearance at a state banquet in almost two years, sitting next to the French president.
Image: Emmanuel Macron and Kate, the Princess of Wales, share a toast. Pic: PA
Also in attendance were Sir Mick Jagger, frontman of The Rolling Stones, who was joined by his fiancee Melanie Hamrick, and Sir Elton John, who was accompanied by his husband David Furnish.
Image: Mick Jagger taking his seat at the state banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
Image: Elton John and David Furnish at the state banquet at Windsor Castle. Pic: PA
Meanwhile, it was announced that the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the Norman conquest of England, will return to the UK for the first time in more than 900 years, and will feature in an exhibition from September 2026 to July 2027.
Mr Macron joked ahead of the state banquet that negotiations to bring the 11th-century artwork back to the UK took longer “than all the Brexit tests”. Talks on a loan had started as early as 2018.