The relentless drumbeat of events can distort our perspective of the passage of time. The Ministry of Defence is reported to be considering proposals to issue bonds to raise additional revenue. Yet only 14 months ago, Sir Keir Starmer seemed to have seized the initiative when he announced that the government would not only fulfil but accelerate its manifesto commitment to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence. That was brought forward to 2027, while he ‘set a clear ambition’ to go further to 3 per cent of GDP ‘in the next parliament’.

What seemed like a bold act of leadership is now much diminished as other Nato member states have made greater commitments to defence. The latest annual report from the alliance’s Secretary General, Mark Rutte, sees the United Kingdom languishing in the midfield. Our current rate of defence spending puts the UK only 14th of 31 Nato members (Iceland has no standing armed forces).

This is not just a matter of comparison and competition to establish bragging rights at Nato summits. Again and again we have seen clear evidence that current levels of defence spending are inadequate. When RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was attacked by Iranian or Iranian-proxy drones at the beginning of March, there were no British naval assets in the region. Due to maintenance and repair backlogs and overstretch, only one of the Royal Navy’s six sophisticated Type 45 destroyers, HMS Dragon, was available for deployment. it took three weeks for her to arrive on station in the eastern Mediterranean. Entire wars have lasted for a shorter period.

The........

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