Starmer will hope defence boost gets breadth of support – at home and in the USpublished at 14:26 Greenwich Mean Time
Chris Mason
Political editor
This is a statement that matters for its content and its
promises but also for its wider pitch.
The shift of budgets from aid to defence will be cheered by
some and criticised by others, perhaps particularly some on the left.
And it is rather different from what Labour said in its
election manifesto less than a year ago, which said: “Labour is committed
to restoring development spending at the level of 0.7% of gross
national income as soon as fiscal circumstances allow.”
The prime minister did say today he hoped in the future things
might change, but acknowledged “it remains a cut, I will not pretend
otherwise”.
But the bigger picture is this: an argument that says the
world has changed, the relatively benign international picture imagined by some
in the 1990s after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is gone and more money needs to
be spent keeping us safe.
“The historical load is not as light as it once was” is how Keir Starmer put it and so there would be “the biggest sustained increase
in defence spending since the end of the Cold War”.
In finding the money from cutting international aid the prime minister avoids awkward domestic trade offs – having to tax more or cut
things people might notice day to day.
There are those already saying it is a false economy to cut
aid spending – the charity Save the Children are saying so, for instance.
But he will hope there is a breadth of political and public
support, as a wider debate about how future proposed increases are paid for
begins.
It also – crucially – gives him something in his back
pocket to take with him to the White House, where increasing defence spending and
cutting aid spending are likely to be given a warm reception.
