{"id":153186,"date":"2025-06-02T22:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T22:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153186\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T22:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T22:16:11","slug":"sir-keir-starmer-vows-to-make-britain-battle-ready-and-armour-clad-but-cant-say-how-hell-fund-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153186\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer vows to make Britain \u2018battle-ready and armour-clad\u2019 but can’t say how he\u2019ll fund it"},"content":{"rendered":"

SIR Keir Starmer yesterday vowed to turn Britain into a \u201cbattle-ready, armour-clad nation\u201d \u2014 but could not say how he will pay for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The PM refused to give a firm date for hitting his flagship three per cent defence spending target \u2014 triggering warnings that his big plans risk falling apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Keir<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to turn Britain into a ‘battle-ready, armour-clad nation’ \u2014 but could not say how it will be fundedCredit: AFP\"Vladimir<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

The PM says the country needs to react to the threat caused by the likes of PutinCredit: AP<\/p>\n

His Strategic Defence Review<\/a> includes a pledge to build 12 attack subs, six new munitions factories, creating around 1,000 jobs, and a \u00a315billion boost for the warhead programme. <\/p>\n

More advanced drones, cyber defences and battlefield tech<\/a> also aim to make the military ten times more lethal by 2035 \u2014 to deal with threats such as Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u2019s Russia<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sir Keir said in Glasgow: \u201cThe threat we now face is more serious<\/a>, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War. The front line, if you like, is here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the plan would create \u201ca battle-ready, armour-clad nation with the strongest alliances, and the most advanced capabilities, equipped for the decades to come\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the refusal to give a firm date on increasing spending<\/a> \u2014 an increase on 2.5 per cent from 2027 \u2014 sparked backlash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ex-Army chief Lord Dannatt told Times Radio: \u201cIt\u2019s a bit like saying in 1938 to Adolf Hitler, \u2018Please don\u2019t attack us until 1946 because we are not going to be ready\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis rather vague commitment to move to three per cent by the end of the next Parliament<\/a>, 2034, just doesn\u2019t stack up.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sir Keir claimed he was \u201c100 per cent confident\u201d the plan would be delivered, but admitted the three per cent figure was an \u201cambition\u201d, not a commitment. <\/p>\n

Top brass and economists warned hefty taxes may be the only way to fund the plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UK launches StormShroud drones that will fly ahead of Brit fighter jets & jam enemy air defences to \u2018stand up to Putin\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SIR Keir Starmer yesterday vowed to turn Britain into a \u201cbattle-ready, armour-clad nation\u201d \u2014 but could not say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,897,528,1144,712,935,520,118,16,15,333,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-153186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-jobs","14":"tag-labour-party","15":"tag-northern-ireland","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-section-newspolitics","18":"tag-sir-keir-starmer","19":"tag-the-sun-newspaper","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-vladimir-putin","23":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114616086323826060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}