THE government needs to increase spending on defence “right now”, according to Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge.

He told the Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “I think it was March the 25th and it may have been in Finland, where the Prime minister said, you’re right, that he would seize those [Russian] vessels. He would board them and seize them. Obviously, that hasn’t happened.

“There have been many such vessels in our waters. There hasn’t yet been that action taken. Now, obviously, the situation is more complex when particularly there are Russian escorts, let’s be frank.

“But I think, to be fair, it all comes back to the same point, doesn’t it? Whatever else we know, one thing is that John Healy, when he made the speech about the defence review to Parliament in June last year, he promised at the dispatch box in Parliament that he would deliver a defence investment plan in the autumn.

“We still don’t have it. The government doesn’t have a plan for defence while there’s war on two fronts. And the thing that I think is so striking is this last Monday, we had all the tax and benefit changes. The two-child benefit cap was removed, billions of extra on benefits. Where’s the extra spending on defence?

“Well, we know where it’s gone. And I think that the hard thing is, we’ve now got to make those tough choices. Kemi set them out in her speech. This is the debate we’ve got to have as a country.

“We’ve said we’re willing to work with him. We’ve got to make tough choices to find the money, whether it’s facing up to the Russians in our own seas or further out. We need that extra cash right now.”

He added: “The reason they’ve delayed it is because they’ve chosen to prioritise welfare spending instead of defence, and they haven’t got the money to implement the plan. There’s a massive row between the Treasury and the MoD and it’s all paralysed.”

On the Chagos Islands deal, he said: “Where are we at when he [Wes Streeting] says it’s in abeyance? It reminds me of a very famous old sketch in Monty Python of the Dead Parrot when the seller says it’s only sleeping, whereas, in fact, as we know, it was a dead parrot, very much an ex-parrot, one that was off to meet its maker.

“I think that is true of this deal. The bill is not going through in the Lords. It’s not in the King’s Speech. We now know that a treaty is going nowhere because it has to be ratified by Parliament.

“I’m delighted by that, and it’s good news for British taxpayers. It’s good news for our strategic interests, and ultimately, good news for Britain. And I’m pleased we fought for that.”