Eliot Wilson

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.

Hallowe’en is nearly over for another year. Thank goodness, you might say. Each October, many Brits scratch their heads about when this festival became such a big thing. I am as guilty as the next person in doing so: only last weekend I reflected, with a combination of curiosity and weariness, that 'when I was young', October 31 was simply not as hotly anticipated a date in the calendar. The blame for Hallowe’en inflation is often directed at the Americans. But it's not fair to blame our US cousins. Hallowe’en is something of an ancient Christian tradition.

Sir Keir Starmer is proving to be an unlucky prime minister. This week began with a demonstration of his haplessness. The Prime Minister travelled to Ankara to announce an £8 billion deal to supply the Turkish air force with 20 new Eurofighter Typhoons, beginning in 2030. Yet the political headlines in Britain were full of other more embarrassing issues: the collapsed China spy trial case, the accidental release of a convicted sex offender due for deportation, the aftermath of Labour’s humiliating loss of the Senedd seat in the Caerphilly by-election. The commercial deal with Turkey is important. Starmer described it in his strange, resentful, maundering way as 'the biggest fighter jet exports deal in a generation', which is subject to several qualifications.

There have been 14 cabinet secretaries since the post was established in 1916. The first, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Maurice Hankey, served for nearly 22 years; in stark contrast, there are now reports that the 14th and current incumbent, Sir Chris Wormald, will be gone by the New Year, having served just 12 or 13 months. The problem is leadership, or rather a glaring lack of it Wormald was appointed in December 2024 after eight-and-a-half years as permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, to replace the controversial Simon Case.

It didn't take long for a judge to deliver his withering verdict on a judicial review application into the use of SAS force in an IRA ambush. The legal challenge over the killing of three Provisional IRA (PIRA) men in June 1991 was described as 'utterly divorced from reality' by Mr Justice McAlinden. At the High Court in Belfast, McAlinden pulled no punches: Three PIRA terrorists drove a stolen car from Moneymore, County Londonderry, to Coagh in order to murder a soldier 'This Court is being asked to slow the passage of time down, to analyse events in freeze-frame and to address the issue of absolute necessity in slow-motion… It is ludicrous to suggest that this court should analyse the events of the day in question in that manner.