Labour still hasn’t costed its Strategic Defence Review – the blueprint to shift Britain to “war-fighting readiness” published last June. It was billed as “setting a path for the next decade and beyond to transform Defence”, with the “ambition” of reaching 3% of GDP on defence spending in the next parliament. Though now No10 is looking to move that target date to the end of this parliament, according to the BBC…
Asked if the SDR was costed before it was published, defence minister Luke Pollard admitted in a written parliamentary answer:
“The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) was presented to the Department by the external reviewers, who were working to the Terms of Reference that the review be deliverable and affordable within the fiscal envelope available to Defence.
The Department is now working on the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which will take the SDR’s strategic direction and its costed recommendations, including on capabilities, and turn that into a delivery plan to ensure we deliver an affordable programme that delivers on the SDR. Defence spending will see a major sustained increase over the next decade.”
As Tim Shipman reported this week, when Keir Starmer was told his 3% pledge wouldn’t cover the defence vision set out in the SDR, he wailed: “Why are you doing this to me? I thought this was costed!” It wasn’t…