We still know little about Andy Burnham’s defence stance
It was a bare-bones demonstration of politics as theatre. Today, the Prime Minister went to Barrow-in-Furness on the Cumbrian coast…
Why won’t Burnham commit to the 2030 defence target?
It is hard to imagine many people will miss Sir Keir Starmer now he has gone. Perhaps, like phantom limb…
Wes Streeting has much to prove as Defence Secretary
Reshuffles vary in significance. When John Healey was spotted in Downing Street yesterday, there was an obvious question: was Andy…
This Nato summit will be Starmer’s final humiliation
Sir Keir Starmer attended his first Nato summit in Washington, DC four days after becoming Prime Minister in July 2024.…
Why does Starmer think he could become Nato chief?
When the incumbent prime minister – presumably Andy Burnham – lays a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday this…
The problem with swapping the navy’s destroyers for drones
It can be hard to believe, but it is only three weeks since John Healey resigned as defence secretary, saying…
Starmer is leaving Britain unprepared for future conflicts
Sir Keir Starmer came to office in July 2024 on a manifesto which played heavily on defence. The Labour party,…
Britain’s slide down the Nato league table is an embarrassment
The Strategic Defence Review (SDR), published a year ago and meant to be the fundamental framework of the government’s defence…
Trump is hollowing out America’s intelligence agencies
Donald Trump never loses the ability to astonish. Many people will have breathed a sigh of relief last month when…
Keir Starmer is not serious about defence
Today marks a year since the government published its Strategic Defence Review (SDR). From the outset, it was clear that…
Why is Andy Burnham asking Sue Gray for advice?
As Andy Burnham, who is still mayor of Greater Manchester in his spare time, campaigns to win the Makerfield by-election…
The Ministry of Defence is failing to prepare Britain for war
In the last 20 or 25 years, there has been a much greater understanding that a country’s ‘national security’ encompasses…
Trump’s NATO troop reduction isn’t Europe’s biggest problem
Before Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, there were many commentators who sought to sanitize the President.…
Why Trump is threatening the Falklands
There are still those who argue that President Trump’s aggressive, impulsive and inconsistent foreign policy is radical and disruptive, and…
War bonds won’t fix Britain’s creaking defence
The Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reported to be considering proposals to issue war bonds to fund a splurge in defence…
Treasury squabbles are harming Britain’s national security
The symphony of criticism aimed at the government for failing to live up to its promises of boosting Britain’s defences…
Starmer is being ‘corrosively complacent’ about defence
The old joke runs that you can tell when a politician is lying because his lips are moving. It is…
Can the Royal Navy really deter Vladimir Putin?
The Royal Navy has not had a good few weeks in reputational terms. It was nothing short of humiliating that…
Putin has called Starmer’s shadow fleet bluff
Theodore Roosevelt, the blur of energy who occupied the White House for the first years of the 20th century, famously…
The Iran deal has shown Britain’s irrelevance
With Donald Trump’s threat that ‘a whole civilization will die… never to be brought back again’ looming on Tuesday night,…
The fate of this US pilot could determine the Iran war
Around dawn on Friday, a McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle from the US Air Force’s 494th Fighter Squadron was shot…
The one hurdle to Trump taking America out of Nato
Donald Trump has never liked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato). Disagreements have been managed before and problems deferred, but…
Civilian ships can’t do the Navy’s job in the Strait of Hormuz
There are those who will claim that Sir Keir Starmer has handled the UK’s response to America’s war with Iran…
Could Britain help unblock the Strait of Hormuz?
It has not required advanced training in detecting nuance or reading between the lines in recent days to understand that…
Should Nato help America defend the Strait of Hormuz?
As soon as Operation Epic Fury, America’s latest campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran, got underway on the last…
