Defence spending boost is price to pay for Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Announcing the biggest increase in defence spending since the Cold War, the Prime Minister put it in historic terms.

Keir Starmer said the threat to European security is as big as when the West was facing off with the Soviet Union.

Thanks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “everything has changed”. The Prime Minister said we are living in a “new era” – one that looks awfully like a previous era when, even without a hot war in Europe like it is today, Western countries were willing to pay much more to protect themselves.

But we’ve just marked the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine – so why is the Prime Minister saying this now?

After all, he had already ordered a major review of defence spending, led by the former Scottish Labour MP and NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson. The Prime Minister has basically said he can’t wait for that.

That’s because he’s off to the White House this week, to meet Donald Trump. He wants to put money on the desk in the Oval Office, and say, “Europe is paying its way for its own security – don’t pull the rug from under us by taking away American security guarantees”.

The defence budget will get £13.5bn more every year by 2027 – reaching the symbolic threshold of 2.5% of GDP.

There will be big economic opportunities that flow from that investment – it’s good news for established defence sectors, like naval shipbuilding in Scotland.

It will also create new jobs in cutting edge areas like drone warfare and cybersecurity, and cash will eventually trickle down to universities and manufacturers in the supply chain.