Politics is a matter of timing – and Keir Starmer perfected today. Barely two hours after Kemi Badenoch’s big foreign affairs speech, the Prime Minister has stolen the headlines off her in a textbook example of the difference between fruitless opposition and the possibilities of government. While the Tory leader could only muse on the need for higher defence spending post-2030, Starmer just went ahead and announced he wants 3 per cent spending of GDP in the next parliament.
Under Starmer’s plans, current expenditure will rise from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent by 2027. The additional £13.4 billion a year, he claimed in the Commons, will come in large part from reducing the aid budget from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent in 2027. Back of the fag packet sums suggest that this move would generate £5.3 billion for defence, meaning a further £8.04 billion remains to be found elsewhere.
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