Keir Starmer has been seized by a dogged determination he does not always exhibit and has announced that he is seeking to revisit the UK’s participation in the European Union’s defence fund, SAFE. Established last May, Security Action for Europe (SAFE) is a fund designed to provide €150 billion (£130 billion) in competitively priced, long-maturity loans for urgent, large-scale defence procurement projects. It was primarily intended for the 27 EU member states, but the terms were drawn very carefully: the loans were also open to Norway, Ukraine and third-party countries which had agreed security pacts with the EU, and could be spent with companies meeting the same criteria.

This meant, of course, that the United Kingdom did not fall automatically within the criteria – and nor did Britain’s defence industry, one of the largest in Europe. When the first draft of SAFE was issued in March, there were rumours that some EU members, notably France, were keen to exclude the UK or at least minimise our involvement. This was hardly surprising, since the exclusion of BAE Systems, Babcock International, Rolls Royce and other UK-based manufacturers would hand a dominant position to the French defence sector (much of which is at least partially state-owned).

There is no indication that the EU is willing to scale back its demands for payment into the budget

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