With parliament back after the summer break, the debate around increasing Britain’s defence spending – so febrile just two months ago – is rearing its head again. On Wednesday, a voice no one knew the country needed chimed into the discussion. Taking to X, the Labour MP Diane Abbott intoned:

‘The imminent threat from Russia is a Nato fiction to justify their complete capitulation to Trump’s demands for more military spending. The increase should not go ahead.’

Doing nothing about Dianne Abbott risks undermining Burnham’s authority on defence

Doing nothing about Dianne Abbott risks undermining Burnham’s authority on defence

It hardly needs stating that Abbott’s tweet was beyond stupid, not only for its ignorance but also for its naivety. Its eerie similarity to propaganda spouted by the Kremlin goes beyond the doomsday talk of ‘complete capitulation’: for one, branding the threat from Russia a ‘Nato fiction’ is a line of argument lifted straight out of Vladimir Putin’s playbook. Apart from that, framing the need to raise defence spending as something to be done purely to placate Donald Trump plays straight into the anti-West, anti-Nato, perfidious West narrative that talking heads in Moscow love to peddle.

Abbott has now........

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