The chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee pressed the Defence Secretary on how the UK will pay for rising military spending during a statement in the House.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the Labour MP for Slough who chairs the committee, raised a series of defence financing options, telling the House that members had advocated for defence bonds and that his committee had examined mechanisms including the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank. He noted that the idea had been developed by a former British Army officer but that other countries had moved first, saying the Canadians had “stolen the march on us.” He added that some nations had “opted for a loosening of the fiscal rules just for defence.”
Dhesi framed the question as one of pace rather than a choice between approaches. “Obviously this is not an either or option, but given the increased threats and the level of volatility, we must accelerate investment in defence to 3% GDP spend in this Parliament,” he said, pressing the Secretary of State on the government’s intended course of action. “We cannot keep plodding along at the current pace, we must meet the moment,” he told MPs.
Healey rejected the suggestion that the government was moving slowly. He said his description of the biggest increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War was hardly a plodding path, and welcomed the committee’s inquiry and its report into defence investment. “We know we must spend more, faster,” he said. “And I just say to him, we will.”
The Defence Secretary pointed to work commissioned from a former prime minister on how security might be paid for in future. He told the House that Gordon Brown had been commissioned by the Prime Minister to examine the multinational financing of security, and that the government would use his report as part of that effort. Healey also invoked the Prime Minister’s address to the Munich Security Conference in February, when Sir Keir Starmer said the UK must build hard power because that was the currency of the age.
The Defence, Security and Resilience Bank that Dhesi referred to is a proposed multilateral, state-backed institution intended to provide low-cost financing for defence, security and resilience projects and to draw private capital into the sector.
Canada has taken a leading role in establishing it, hosting charter negotiations in Montreal and agreeing to host the future headquarters, with several major Canadian banks backing the development group. The concept originated with Rob Murray, a former British Army officer and former head of innovation at NATO, and is designed in part to help allies meet the spending pledge agreed at the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague.
Defence spending should be removed from the sitting government so it’s not some plaything and in the hands of Parliament, with a budget ring fenced agreed by all parties.
Our DSC should actually have some teeth. Officers are gagged, numbers withheld, orbat a dirty word, by the MoD.
They have no power.
I read that elsewhere like in France that isn’t the case,and senior officers can talk freely about requiring X and those on committee then enable the laws and finance to make it happen.
Here?
A veil of secrecy.
I think Mr Dhesi makes a valiant effort.
100% right Daniele
but they all love to big up the Global power and reach of our military and how it is world class
unfortunately I dont believe that anymore, not because of its people, but because of its size and equipment shortfalls
I would also argue the Police / law and order need a similar ringfenced budget, as that would seem to be underfunded as well
At this point I am not interested in blame – I want to see someone fix it
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Agree. But recriminations are always necessary, as both parties still play party political games, blaming the other, and posters here on our own UKDJ often favour one side over the other in their recollections on who did what, when the big two parties have equally failed. I’m happy to do my part, miniscule and insignificant as it is, on a wider forum.
Always look for your input
Spot on
Dhesi is to be commended
As to be expected, Healey doesn’t detail the varied funding items that have been moved into the % spent on Defence when he boasts of the spending increases.
I’d pay good money to see someone contradict both him, and Starmer, to their faces, in camera, with the details.
Last time thar happened ge couldn’t detail the number of Escorts the RN had and flustered 17 while on radio interview.
These people are allowed to get away with it.
Apologies for typos, oh for the edit function.
Hi Daniele I totally agree with you I’d love to see them come unstuck by some member of the media . keep prying for the day the journalists asks the right Questions .It’s beyond me how there’s no urgency in the government to sort defence for this country of ours out. Seems has if it’s not even an after though. 🙄
The real figures are covered up as when you exclude the nuclear deterrant, wages and pensions the figure is about 1.6% -1.8% of GDP. Defence does not win votes it’s as simple as that. Defence is only needed when we are threatened, and even then some people will bury their head in the sand.
I always Sikh his input too, religiously 😁
A lot of things critical to the country should be removed. Too much that involves planning over decades is bogged down in short term political games and the 5 yearly election circus. It’s a major factor in the country being in the state it is in. The system is wasteful and inefficient by design yet nobody seems to question it.
Because of vested interests.
Your comments above are spot on, the defence budget should have nothing to do with GDP, it should be all about “what is needed” but for that to happen our head sheds need to agree on the shape of our armed forces, the levels of manpower and an industrial base to support the armed forces, that would mean a totally radical rethink in Westminster.
Security is all inclusive it has its fingers in every ones pie, there is no part of the UK’s infrastructure that is not affected by Defence or security.
So it should be outside politics, Westminster should have an input into what we stand for and if/when we are going to war but the rest should be left to people who actually know what they are talking about and put their country before their back pocket.
I am so frustrated to what I thought was quite a good SDR a year ago
By the time from announcement first week July??? to when they get back from their hols it will be a year of slippage since DIP was promised
One example
At the beginning of the SDR
‘We will protect the UK homeland, with up
to £1bn new funding invested in homeland
air and missile defence ‘……….
When our homeland is undefended against ballistic missiles including our cities and bases so that even a few idiots can get through airbase perimeter fences and cause many millions worth in damage to Voyagers A proxy force in S.Lebanon launches cheap drones and hits a hangar at RAF Akrotiri
No basic defence and the latter attack was surely a wakeup call and an expensive response (HMS Dragon slowly – Merlins and Wildcats) when a single AAM battery in place would have done sufficed)
It beggars belief on the sad state of our defences
I probably should be aiming my ire at the MOD and brasshats regarding Cyprus
Sorry Daniele
I am not trying to outwit Halfwit
but a drill sergenat might say to those in charge
Pull the finger out of your b.. otherwise you get a red hot poker up it
This glacial pace – Aaaaah
Sorry to me?
Not at all, I agree with every word, and said so at the time. The effort and headlines that HMG made to send what little GBAD we had to Cyprus after the horse had bolted was hilarious to see.
There were several commentators on SM who had been highlighting this gap for years before any of this happened.
If we were proactive rather than reactive we’d have had the just in case GBAD already there. And everyone talks of Akrotiri. No mention of Salt Lake Site, Episkopi, Dhekelia, Ayios Nikolios, two of those at least as important as the RAF Station. I wonder if they were undefended. How many places do a handful of Sceptre and LMM need toe be?
Damage was insignificant, and missiles and Drones will get through, sure. That is not the issue. It was the knee jerk reaction after and lack of action before that is the issue. I recall ministers made a point of deflecting, and publicly blaming the military at the time for not asking? I find that hard to believe as well, PJHQ will know the limitations placed on it by the government more than anybody.
Of course, when the boot is on the other foot and government needs protecting, the G7 summit in Cornwall had GBAD already in place.
Hypocritical scum….
‘The effort and headlines that HMG made to send what little GBAD we had to Cyprus after the horse had bolted was hilarious to see.’
The worst of it is that we clearly had air defence assets operational throughout the Middle East (in the form of Martlet and its autonomous launchers in Iraq, for example), but failed to predict the threat to Cyprus. It was a rare occasion upon which the mass was available, but the deployment was fluffed.
Yes, fair. Not sure to what scale though? I recall LMM was in Iraq at Irbil, and Typhoon in Qatar and that a lot more went to the Gulf afterwards as well.
We had Sky Sabre on standby, then all the FAA helicopters that were sent from the UK, as well as Stormer in Saudi Arabia (where I don’t believe they ever reported engaging anything).
The UK actually has quite a few C-UAS solutions ready to go. Just seems mental none of them were at our principal Middle Eastern airbase.
Yes
I know Cyprus well
Would one GBAD on the SE coast do it? on soverign base territory nearer the primary area of threats and I don’t mean Hezbollah
Also cover the RAF in Akrotiri and Cyprus to keep the Greek Cypriots happy with a few cheaper LMM / anti drone etc at both bases. North of the Troodos the Turks are showing they can look after themselves The GCHQ etc stuff near Mt Olympus has not been mentioned regarding strategic interest and you would think . Hey get a grip and defend
The embarrassment of the French coming to help Cyprus first was diplomatically not good We looked inept
An GBAD asset such as Sabre, placed near the coast in the Cape Gata area could presumably could cover RAF Akrotiri, the SLS, and Episkopi Garrison. I say presumably as I have not the foggiest regards its range, that holds little interest for me.
Agree on Troodos, which I did not mention as being such a small retained site ( part of the JSSU (C) ( Golf Det ) can we even fire SAM from up there legally over the surrounding Cypriot territory??
There are two retained sites up there, at Troodos Mountain which has the GCHQ stuff ( JSSU ) and Mt Olympus with radar.
Assume a second GBAD asset would need to be placed at Ay Nik which could also cover Dhekelia to its south east?
Strategically, Ay Nik, Troodos, RAF Akrotiri and the SLS are the main targets to my mind, though the infrastructure is pretty well spread out apart from at the main Ops site at Ay Nik and at the RAF Station.
Correction, duh! Dhekelia is South West of Ayios Nikolios, not SE, sorry.
Danielle
No I was not thinking of weapons up there
Yeah, Sky Sabre could definitely cover most of the British sites around Akrotiri (roughly 25km engagement radius on the CAMM interceptor that it uses).
Thanks Leh.
With all the Yank bases being hit by Iran, It does make you wonder how bad their own defences are.
Sorry, I forgot myself there for a second !
😁
Some missiles and Drones will always get through.
Yes and that’s the really big problem that we are not addressing. We can’t afford any losses.
We should invest in some hardened aircraft shelters.
Agreed.
None at all at Akrotiri.
Plenty in the UK, but at legacy stations not current ones with aircraft.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, some time ago but I was based at Episkopi from ’64 to ’68 and during that time, there was a Bloodhound detachment stationed on the hill overlooking the base. Two or four missiles. It was not very visible from the base itself so I have no idea when it arrived and/or when it left. However, I think Bloodhound detachments were reasonably mobile and so it may have been just a temporary exercise.
That’s interesting, Crab. I have studied that area north of Episkopi extensively, and noted the various hardstandings. There#s not much there now, the JSSU Skynet SGS has gone, there is the old go kart track, and some comms stuff.
A lot of words, going no where, like every other statement on defence.