Keir Starmer gave six responses to questions about Lord Robertson’s defence spending comments today, none of which addressed the criticism properly. Kemi Badenoch rightly chose to focus all her attacks at Prime Minister’s Questions on the speech by the author of Labour’s strategic defence review, opening with the line from Robertson about a ‘corrosive complacency’ on defence. He replied:

The Speaker intervened to remind Starmer that this was Prime Minister’s Questions, rather than questions to the Leader of the Opposition

The Speaker intervened to remind Starmer that this was Prime Minister’s Questions, rather than questions to the Leader of the Opposition

‘Let me start by saying I respect Lord Robertson. And I thank him again for carrying out the strategic review. My responsibility is to keep the British people safe and that is a duty I take seriously, that is why I don’t agree with his comments. Last February, that was seven months after taking office, I took the decision to increase defence spending from 2.3 to 2.6 per cent, paid for by a difficult decision on overseas aid. Last June at the Nato summit, I committed to raising core defence spending to 3.5 per cent. Last November, the Budget committed record funding to defence. I reaffirm those commitments now. The spending, the strategic defence review is a ten year blueprint for national security. The Defence Investment Plan will put that into effect, it will be published as soon as possible, we need to get it right, we inherited........

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