Starmer Plots Higher UK Defense Spending in Bid to Save His Job

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After a series of political crises sparked speculation Starmer could be removed from office next month — from a scandal over his US envoy Peter Mandelson’s links to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to the exit of his top aide Morgan McSweeney — No. 10 has arrived at a plan to pitch his leadership around Britain’s security in response to the Iran war.

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Starmer met other leaders in the Persian Gulf this week to discuss defense coordination against the threat from Tehran and a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. His messaging of late has centered on economic security, including closer ties with the European Union, as well as energy security and defense and national security.

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His words were followed by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper telling a City of London audience on Thursday that the government would be “putting security, both national security and economic security, much more centrally at the heart of our approach.” Defense Secretary John Healey then told a conference on Friday that Britain was “in a new era of defense because of this new era of threat,” adding that it “demands an immediate response.”

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It would not be possible to adequately respond to the events of recent weeks and meet that new rhetoric without increasing defense spending, multiple government officials said, particularly in light of less support from Trump’s America.

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Labour strategists said there was also a political advantage to focusing on security and the national interest as it plays to one of Starmer’s perceived strengths amid his dire personal opinion poll ratings, and allows him to double down on his criticisms of Green Party leader Zack Polanski and Reform UK’s Nigel Farage as unpatriotic over their positions on NATO and Russia respectively.

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Nonetheless, a strategy based on defense and security may disappoint some Labour Members of Parliament who had wanted the government to pivot to the left in response to negative polls and doubts over a centrist agenda linked to former aide McSweeney. 

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The hundreds of Labour MPs elected in 2024 hoped the government would use its power to save Britain’s public services after years of Conservative rule, while bolstering workers’ rights and other left-wing causes. Few saw themselves voting for more missiles and fighter jets. One MP said Starmer’s move, therefore, would do little to dissuade those in the party who want to remove him.

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Still, another MP argued a defense spending rise would provide a challenge to Starmer’s internal rivals, who would have to answer whether they’d endorse his policy or keep defense spending at a lower level.

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It was never likely Starmer would simply adopt a left-wing agenda and he always intended to strike a balance between different sides of the Labour party, a person close to him said, citing his ongoing commitments to tough policies on immigration and fiscal prudence in addition to more liberal stances on Europe, child poverty and net zero. Even on the latter, and without McSweeney by his side, the premier this week indicated he was not opposed to granting more licenses for drilling at the Rosebank oil field to the north of Scotland.

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A stronger defense policy may go some way to dispel the repeated criticism from Trump in recent weeks. Provoked by Starmer’s opposition to his operation in Iran, Trump said the British premier is “no Winston Churchill” and implied he is more like Neville Chamberlain, Churchill’s predecessor whose name is synonymous — fairly or not — with appeasement of Adolf Hitler.

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Often forgotten amid the criticism of Chamberlain is his policy of rearmament, with some historians crediting him with rebuilding Britain’s defenses in time for the Second World War. Starmer appears to have decided it’s fallen on him to rearm Britain to counter the present day’s threats.

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—With assistance from Joe Mayes and Tom Rees.

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