Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to “get a grip” on Britain’s defences following the “shambles” double resignation of John Healey and Al Carns.
Speaking to GB News, Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge hit out at the Prime Minister’s attempt to “distract” from the chaos within Government.
Reacting to Labour’s confirmation of the seizure of a Russian oil tanker in the English Channel, Mr Cartlidge told GB News: “We support this action, notwithstanding the fact that there have been a lot of shadow vessels passing through our waters and nothing seems to have happened.
“I welcome the fact that they’ve intercepted this vessel, obviously subject to the fact we only know a relatively small amount of information.”
Paying tribute to the work of the Royal Marines, Navy and Royal Air Force personnel, he added: “We do have brilliant people in our armed forces, and this shows they can do the job if you give them the kit and if you have a Government willing to lead.
“So I hope this is a sign of things to come under the new Defence Secretary – we do need to send a strong signal to Russia, but part of that strong signal, it has to be said, is instead of the shambles of recent days that we’ve had with the Defence Investment Plan.
The Shadow Defence Secretary urged the Prime Minister to “get a grip” of Britain’s defences.
He made clear: “From our point of view, that means finding the money, and I think everyone now sees that.
James Cartlidge has told Sir Keir Starmer to ‘get a grip’ of defence after ‘shambles’ double resignation
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PA / GB NEWS
“And a big part of that means getting on top of our welfare bill to give to our armed forces, so that these aren’t one offs. That we are broadly sending a strong signal to our adversaries that we really are back in defence.”
Criticising Labour plans to only increase defence spending by “0.08 per cent by 2030”, Mr Cartlidge declared it is “nowhere near enough” for what the country currently needs.
He said: “I think everyone knows that 0.08 per cent is nothing like enough, and we know that John Healey himself, the previous Defence Secretary, thought that and that’s why he resigned.
“We feel very strongly it needs to go to three per cent this Parliament, and we think a big part of that has come has got to come from cutting welfare and making our country stronger.”
New Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis has said the Government must ‘meet the moment’ on military spending | GETTY
Pushing back on Mr Cartlidge, host Emily Carver challenged him on the previous Conservative spending on defence, arguing Britain’s army has “depleted because of the Tories”.
Mr Cartlidge responded: “The Army has fallen pretty much every year since the Second World War, and at times very large numbers, so actually that trend has been pretty much the same.
“There’s only two prime ministers who have presided over an army that was bigger when they left office than when they came into it since the Second World War: Gordon Brown and Alec Douglas-Home.”
Hitting back at the Tory MP, Emily then argued: “Are you admitting that the Conservatives got it wrong, that you were just far too relaxed on defence?”
James Cartlidge told GB News defence spending must reach ‘three per cent by the end of this parliament’
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GB NEWs
Mr Cartlidge disagreed, telling GB News: “No, I’m not saying that at all. It was 1996, the year before Blair came in, when we were in Government, that the Government last spent three per cent on defence.
“I’m not relaxed at all. In Government, we did something very extraordinary on defence, which is to stand by Ukraine, oo one else did that. Nigel Farage blamed Nato and wouldn’t have done anything.
“Clearly other countries did respond, but only after we showed that leadership, so I’m proud of that.”
He concluded: “But in terms of defence spending over decades, it has fallen, and that’s because we thought we had peace. But it must be obvious to everyone that we don’t now.”