The Shadow Defence Secretary has called for increased spending to speed up the construction of new Royal Navy frigates, following the news that a Russian warship conducted a live firing test in the English Channel yesterday.
James Cartlidge told GB News: “Well, I think it’s very concerning. As Shadow Defence Secretary, I have not yet had a briefing from inside the MoD about the detail of this, so I can only go by the reports that you’re seeing. But I think we all know that we’ve seen a lot of worrying activity from the Russian military, both at sea and in the air around the UK, and we have to respond strongly.
“What I would like to see is a government now gripping defence. We’ve got a new defence secretary, Wes Streeting, a new chancellor, John Healey, who was defence secretary, they know how serious the threat is. Certainly, John Healey does, and I want to see them stepping forward.
“I’ll give you an example of something we’ve said as the opposition. Your viewers will know how strongly we feel about the Chagos deal that the government negotiated. We think it’s done and dusted. But the key thing is there were hundreds of millions of pounds that were going to be given to Mauritius in this Parliament, which at the moment the government are still budgeting to do that.
“We think, given the deal is dead, they should transfer that cash to spending on the Royal Navy and accelerating the build of the 13 frigates we ordered in government that are being manufactured in Scotland right now. They could be brought into service quicker. That isn’t free because you have to pay basically for double shifts, working round the clock.
“We’re prepared to do that using the Chagos money, and that would mean more ships into service, because the key weakness we have here is not enough surface ships against the Russian threat. So we need to send them that message from the heart of government that we’re going to stand up to Putin. And I can tell you, if the Prime Minister does that, he will have our support in the national interest.”
Asked if there should be a general election, he said: “It’s true we have had a change of prime minister without an election. What Kemi has said is, look, you know we have a very pressing and serious situation. In fact, just illustrated by your previous point about this apparent activity from this Russian naval vessel.
“She said, if Labour are unable to fund defence, then there needs to be a general election because what we want to see is steps being taken right now to come out and say, ‘This is where we’re getting the money from for defence.’ Therefore, the defence investment plan can be implemented, and that in itself sends a strong signal to Putin and others.
“If they can’t do that, we’ve said it’s one of the key reasons why we would need a general election. So I do understand why people are saying with that, and I’m bound to say, going back to the very first point we discussed, if a new announcement like this on something so high profile as the cost of living from Andy Burnham can only last a few minutes scrutiny before people who are on the Labour side are pulling it apart, and where it’s found to have no way of paying for it, what on earth is going to happen in an election campaign?
“Who knows what is going to happen? All we do know is we’ve had this first big announcement from Labour, which has completely unravelled. We’ve got this very serious activity that you’ve also highlighted from the Russians. We know they’re a threat to us. What we need to see is a new prime minister really getting a grip here, showing how he’s going to pay for things. Whereas we’ve had the complete opposite.”