Starmer to set out defence detail in coming weeks

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged that the government will set out how it intends to go further and faster on defence in the coming weeks, in a wide-ranging essay published on his personal Substack addressing the domestic and international security environment, as pressure mounts from industry and senior defence figures over the pace of delivery.

Starmer described the current moment as one that would “shape our future for generations” and said the UK was facing “a war on two fronts, in Ukraine and in the Middle East, a fractured world, more dangerous than at any point in my lifetime.”

He said the choice facing the country was to “rise to this moment together, become a stronger, more resilient and more united nation” or “sink into the politics of grievance and division, a politics that would make us weaker, less secure, and less able to face this moment of danger and turbulence.”

The government was already delivering “the biggest sustained investment in British defence since the Cold War”, Starmer said, and in the coming weeks would set out how it was going to “go further and faster” with what he described as “radical change to meet a radically changed world.” That would include “working more closely with our partners to strengthen the European element of NATO” and building “the formidable productive power and innovative strength that we need.”

British companies, he noted, already account for over a quarter of the continent’s defence industrial base, calling them “a job-creating, community-building machine” and setting out an ambition to “build a shared industrial base across our continent, with British industry at the heart.”

The pledges come against a backdrop of significant industry frustration, we reported recently that senior figures from across the defence sector warned MPs that the delayed Defence Investment Plan was creating what one trade body director described as a state of paralysis, with some SMEs having exited the sector entirely and some unable to make long-term decisions on hiring, production capacity and capital spending.

Lord Robertson, who led the government’s Strategic Defence Review, accused the government in April of showing what he described as corrosive complacency towards defence spending, in a speech the Financial Times called a devastating political attack.

Starmer also confirmed that together with France and other partners, the government had “brought dozens of countries together to launch a multinational military mission” in the Strait of Hormuz, describing its purpose as being “to give reassurance, prevent escalation, and protect the foundations of our economy” when conditions allowed ships to move again through the strait.

On the domestic security front, Starmer said the government was “going after the peddlers of hate with everything we have, and raising our defences to forces outside the UK who try to foment unrest on our streets, target our society, our infrastructure and our allies.” He confirmed the government was reviewing whether the powers available to law enforcement were adequate for the threats the country faces, and said resources were being surged into policing alongside efforts to tackle root causes throughout society.

The answer to the current moment was not passive government, Starmer said, nor “the populists who look out at the world and offer only easy answers that would make us weaker, or bankrupt” but rather “active, interventionist government, together with active patriotic citizens, prepared to confront reality and do the serious, hard work we need.” He committed to rolling out “a new agenda of radical reform” through the King’s Speech and beyond.