Eliot Wilson

Britain’s armed forces lack the mass, readiness and resilience needed to produce a credible deterrent in an era of intensifying threats. The danger comes not only from an aggressive and expansionist Russia but from a reckless and murderous Iranian régime with its back currently to the wall, while China continues to use any means at its disposal to advance its interests globally. To begin to meet these threats, His Majesty’s government must give an absolute and unqualified commitment to increase core defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, with a clear timeline for delivery. This cannot wait. This argument has been set out in an open letter to the Prime Minister by the analysis and advocacy group Defence on the Brink.

Last week could have been worse for Sir Keir Starmer, but only because he remains Prime Minister – for the time being. After the tawdry relationship between Lord Mandelson and the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein surged back into the headlines, Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, was forced to resign as a burnt offering. For a while it seemed as if Starmer’s tenure as leader of the Labour party had hours rather than days, weeks or months, left to run. Labour MPs are understandably desperate. But they are losing touch with reality Survival is a basic human instinct.

Micheál Martin, now in his second stint as Ireland’s Taoiseach, is by our standards a political veteran, having led Fianna Fáil for the past 15 years. But like our Prime Minister Keir Starmer, after finding domestic politics ever more challenging, he is finding solace on the international stage. Micheál Martin’s response was simply not the way allies or partners act towards each other Last week, Martin lived up to the Irish desire to be the ‘Most Oppressed People Ever’. In the Dáil he gave the Irish government’s official response to the final report from Operation Kenova, the investigation into the handling by British security forces of the agent within the Provisional IRA codenamed ‘Stakeknife’.

Parliament is pointless without debate. It is there in the definition of the word itself: the Old French parlement derives from parler, to talk or discuss. Parliament is a forum in which our elected representatives debate how we live as a society and a nation. It has not been as effective or interested in that central purpose as it should for some years. This week, however, a House of Commons select committee drew a line in the sand and prevented debate being further marginalised.

Sir Keir Starmer is the most distinguished barrister to occupy the premiership since H.H. Asquith more than a century ago. His legal career, however, has repeatedly bowled him difficult balls he has struggled to defend. The latest googly is that in 2007 he was leading counsel for an intervention to the House of Lords by a number of parties, including the Law Society of England and Wales and Liberty, seeking to re-examine the deaths of Iraqi civilians. The submission bearing Starmer’s name argued that, ‘the duty of effective investigation has not been fulfilled… they were perfunctory, lacking independence and wholly inadequate. Any suggestion that they satisfied the requirements of Article 2 ECHR is unarguable.

The government’s treaty with Mauritius to hand over sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), including the joint UK/US military facility on Diego Garcia, has caused anger and fierce debate since it was signed in May last year. In the latest setback, it appears to prevent the United States from handling or storing nuclear weapons at Naval Support Facility (NSF) Diego Garcia, unacceptably limiting its strategic use and autonomy. Earlier this month, Sir Keir Starmer said, 'I've been a lifelong advocate of international law and the importance of compliance with international law.

Long before he was president of the United States, Donald Trump was a caricature. Producer Mark Burnett approached him to be the lynchpin of The Apprentice precisely because he was a cartoonishly bombastic, ‘greed is good’ era figure addicted to displays of gold-plated opulence. Since occupying the White House, Trump has also frequently acted as a stereotypical American who sees everything as an achievement of the US of A, salvator mundi. And he has been doing it again with the war in Afghanistan. ‘We will always be there for Nato, even if they won’t be there for us,’ he blurted on his Truth Social platform earlier this month.

The United Kingdom’s allies in Europe are concerned that the British government is not allocating enough resources to defence and that our armed forces’ capabilities are already suffering as a result. No one likes to be openly chided by their friends – and it stings all the more because it is true. Last week, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, appeared before the House of Commons defence committee. He had admitted that 'we are not as ready as we need to be for the kind of full-scale conflict that we might face'.

Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement last February that the government would increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP from April 2027 seems a long time ago. It was trumpeted as the 'biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War', but in fact represented a very modest rise from the 2.3 per cent of 2024/25. Events of the past year have now left it looking cautious and inadequate. As a direct consequence of this measly funding, Britain now looks set to lose out on the opportunity to update its stock of military helicopters, putting jobs – and the country's defence – at risk. In recent days, we learnt that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) estimates it will need another £28 billion over the next four years to meet the commitments it has set out.

The current conflict in Ukraine has frequently been compared to the first world war. There is an echo of the same grimness and intensity: the huge artillery barrages, the sprawling network of trenches, the horrifying casualty rates. Amid all that, Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, clinging on to their 'coalition of the willing', are invoking another memory. If they can make The Big Push, we will reach a peace settlement monitored by their ad hoc European-led alliance. The two leaders have made a genuine step forward.

Kemi Badenoch has announced a series of commitments on defence spending that she would implement if she were to become prime minister. This is an important and sensitive issue as the war in Ukraine continues and there are repeated warnings about the heightened threats to the UK. The Conservatives would reallocate £17 billion of public expenditure to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Badenoch said yesterday, because the 'defence of the realm must be the first priority of any government'. The most politically sharp-edged measure the Tories have announced is repurposing the National Wealth Fund (NWF), which Labour established to 'increase investment… to accelerate delivery of the government’s growth and clean energy missions'.

'Full steam ahead': That was the verdict on the Aukus alliance from Defence Secretary John Healey after the United States concluded its review of the alliance this week. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered the good news to Healey and Richard Marles, Australia’s Minister for Defence, in Washington this week. But there's a catch: with no mention of increased defence spending in last month's Budget, does the UK really have the money to fund the grand plans Aukus commits it to? This renewed commitment to Aukus by America is good news and could not have been taken for granted.

Luke Pollard, recently promoted to Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, must have looked forward to visiting General Dynamics UK in Merthyr Tydfil at the beginning of the month. The facility in south Wales builds the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle and its five variants (Ares, Athena, Apollo, Atlas, Argus: alliteration pays well in the defence sector), of which the British army has ordered a total of 589. The visit marked the vehicle’s initial operating capability (IOC), the development stage at which it is available in minimum, usefully deployable form. This was especially significant for Ajax because the platform has endured a torrid birth and evolution.

As a Russian spy ship lurks on the edge of British waters, Defence Secretary John Healey had a message for Vladimir Putin: ‘We see you, we know what you’re doing and...we are ready.’ Unfortunately, the reality is that Britain isn't quite as ready as it should be. Defence Secretary John Healey had a message for Vladimir Putin: ‘We see you, we know what you’re doing' Healey revealed during a Downing Street press conference this morning that the Yantar, currently just north of Scotland, has fired lasers at RAF planes attempting to monitor its activities. It marks the first time that a Russian ship has taken this kind of action against British forces. ‘We take it extremely seriously,’ Healey said.

Nine retired senior military officers have written an open letter to warn that the expansion of human rights legislation is damaging morale within Britain’s armed forces and undermining their effectiveness. These are among our most eminent generals: all have held four-star rank; three have served as Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, and one is a former Chief of the Air Staff, the RAF equivalent. Their argument is this. Human rights legislation, especially an 'ever-broadening interpretation' of the European Convention on Human Rights, is being used to re-examine actions taken by armed forces personnel in combat.

It is a distinct career advantage in Sir Keir Starmer’s government for ambitious ministers to be able to shut unpalatable truths out of their minds and maintain a tone of blind, unwavering optimism. Luke Pollard, the minister for defence readiness and industry, showed those qualities this week on a visit to the General Dynamics UK factory in Merthyr Tydfil. Pollard was in south Wales to announce the achievement of 'initial operating capability' for the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle, one of the British Army’s three principal platforms for the forthcoming decades. 'Ajax has proved itself in the field to be the most advanced medium-weight armoured fighting vehicle on the planet,' Pollard declared. 'We have more than a full squadron ready to fight.