“Most dangerous world since the end of the Cold War,” says PM Rishi Sunak

“There can be no doubt that the era of the peace dividend is clearly over,” says Defence Secretary

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

The Facts4EU team analyses the UK Government’s defence pledges announced in Warsaw

On Tuesday (23 Apr 2024) the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was in Warsaw, meeting the anti-UK and anti-Brexit Polish PM Donald Tusk and the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. The UK’s PM announced a major uplift in UK defence spending. Below we summarise what this means to the British people and to our armed forces.

We ask the fundamental question :“Whilst welcoming any increase, is this too little, too late?”

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

UK defence spending to rise – but slowly

Defence spending to increase to 2.5% of GDP by 2030
Defence to receive an additional £75 billion over six years
The UK will remain the second largest defence spender in NATO after the US
Other countries (e.g. Poland) have committed to 4% of GDP on defence

[Sources: UK government | NATO.]

“UK’s defence industry on a war footing,” says PM

Delivering a speech alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Poland, a country at the forefront of the EU’s defence with its Ukrainian border, the Prime Minister said we are at a turning point in European security and urged allies to step up.

“An axis of autocratic states like Russia, Iran and China are increasingly working together to undermine democracies and reshape the world order. They are also investing heavily in their own militaries and in cyber capabilities and in low-cost technology, such as the Shahed attack drones Iran fired towards Israel last weekend.”

“This poses a direct threat to the lives and livelihoods of people in the UK, as well as across Europe and the wider world” said the PM.

NATO’s view

Visiting the base of the Warsaw Armoured Brigade, the NATO Secretary General welcomed Prime Minister Sunak’s announcement of a major new package of military support for Ukraine, which includes more ammunition, air defence, and deep precision strike capabilities. Mr Stoltenberg said that NATO is now addressing how to put support for Ukraine on a more robust and predictable footing, including with a multi-year financial commitment, adding that the UK's commitment sets us in “the right direction".

The Secretary General further welcomed that the UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030, saying that "once again, the UK is leading by example". At the base, Mr Stoltenberg greeted troops from the Queen’s Dragoon Guards, a cavalry regiment of the British Army with more than 300 years of history, specialising in reconnaissance.

During his meeting with Prime Minister Tusk, the Secretary General praised Poland for its continued investment in defence spending – around 4% of GDP, topping the NATO table – and its procurement of key capabilities, including F35 aircraft.

The statement from No.10 said that the UK armed forces are world-leading - despite repeated cutbacks - but the Prime Minister has said that we must take further action now to deter these growing threats.

Poland now tops NATO’s European table, says NATO Secretary General

Visiting the base of the Warsaw Armoured Brigade, the NATO Secretary General welcomed Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a major new package of UK military support for Ukraine, which includes more ammunition, air defence, and deep precision strike capabilities.

Mr Stoltenberg said that NATO is now addressing how to put support for Ukraine on a more robust and predictable footing, including with a multi-year financial commitment, adding that the UK's commitment sets us in “the right direction".

Observations

“Whilst welcoming any increase, is this too little, too late?”

A commitment to raise UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP may sound positive, but this pledge is for the end of the decade, when the current government will almost certainly not be in power. Liz Truss promised this almost a year ago, before she was ousted.

For the last eight years Facts4EU.Org has argued for a doubling at minimum, to 4% of GDP, which is what the Polish government has committed to.

If there is indeed “a direct threat to the lives and livelihoods of people in the UK, as well as across Europe and the wider world” as Rishi Sunak says, then why are we messing around with small incremental increases over the next six years?

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[ Sources: UK Government | NATO ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 25 Apr 2024

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

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Reader Comments 8

1. Have You Wondered , Thursday, April 25, 2024, 09:03:

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Do You Wonder if the situation is ironic?
.
2.5% of GDP to stop Putin et al and world wars.
.
BUT
The UK cannot defend 50 miles of coastline from the unarmed irregular immigrants achieving what a certain Austrian corporal could not?
.

2. Old Albion , Thursday, April 25, 2024, 15:26:

You gotta laugh haven't you ..................haven't you.

3. LuxuryBalloon , Thursday, April 25, 2024, 16:18:

And was Russia behind the explosion in the ammunition factory in Wales a week ago?

4. Sparky , Thursday, April 25, 2024, 16:27:

An economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), Ben Zaranko, has said the real figure is only £20 billion, not the £75 billion. He posted on X: “To get the £75 billion number, the government has assumed a baseline with spending frozen in cash terms and then added up all of the differences. “If you instead assume a baseline of spending frozen as a % GDP, it’s an extra £20 billion over 6 years.”
.
Meanwhile reported in the Independent: Brexiteers destroyed Britain’s future, the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has claimed. Mr Carney made his comments as he delivered a keynote address at Canada 2020’s economic lookahead dinner in Toronto on Monday (22 April). Mr Carney said: “Some right-wing populists see current anxieties as an opportunity to stoke anger because anger is what’s necessary for their project. After all, people don’t demolish things when htey are positive or optimistic. “I know this from my time in the UK, where for years the rallying cry of Brexiteers has broken Britain, and their solution to take back control was actually code for tear down your future.”

5. ste , Thursday, April 25, 2024, 17:13:

haha sparkless just cannot resist a dig at democracy and freedom, choosing elected accountable leaders will NEVER be the wrong choice regardless of any percieved costs, freedom is priceless

6. NH , Thursday, April 25, 2024, 17:43:

4. Sparky, "Brexiteers destroyed Britain’s future, the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has claimed"
Mark Carney claimed Brexit would lead to a UK recession and high unemployment in 2016. Then a year latter he withdrew his predictions in front of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee and stated "financial stability risks are greater in the EU than the UK". He doesn't seem to be very consistent !
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Meanwhile Emanuel Macron is warning the EU today that in the next decade there is an immense risk that the EU could die or become insignificant. When you consider the factual information it seems that Emanuel Macron is better at forecasting than Mark Carney !

7. gazzablack , Thursday, April 25, 2024, 18:25:

Reported in the Telegraph - Leo Varadkar's Weaponised Irish border is used against his own people, and it allows Brits to get rid of its illegal migrants
.
80% of Asylum seekers in Ireland are pouring over the invisible border with the North.
Irish Court bans returns to the UK as it judges it to be no longer a safe country.
Anti-migrant Riots and arson in Dublin, go figure.
4,sparky
Carney is no more than a drone for the WEF, and is "yesterdays man"
The only positive you can say about Carney is, he's not Andrew Bailey
.
Meanwhile
The UK is now the fourth largest exporter of goods and services in the world, overtaking France, Netherlands and Japan.
.
The governor of the US state of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, has confirmed that he has opened up negotiations with the UK for a trade-related MoU, meeting recently with the UK trade envoy Conor Burns.
.
With just 5 of the many benefits, Brexit's already added around 1% of GDP.
.
1% of GDP ≈ $30bn
.
EU Net Budget Contributions Avoided, 2024 ≈ $21bn
Keeping HMRC Customs Duties ≈ $3.5bn
Trading Swiss Equities ≈ $2.75bn
Removed NTBs ≈ $1.5bn
EU Plastic Waste Levy ≈ $1.25bn

8. gazzablack , Thursday, April 25, 2024, 18:34:

Jellyfish have survived for 650 million years, despite not having a brain.
.
Maybe there's hope for rejoiners yet.

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