RATTLED Sir Keir Starmer today snapped back at criticism over military funding – but admitted that Britain is not on a “war footing”.
The PM was grilled by MPs over his failure to produce the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan that has been delayed for months.
Sir Keir Starmer at the Liaison Committee today
Senior Tory Sir Bernard Jenkin said the dithering “smacks of enormous complacency” amid the conflict and global turmoil.
The PM angrily replied: “Well this smacks of the fact that for years there was underinvestment by the last government and the stripping out and hollowing out of our armed forces.”
In testy exchanges between the two men, Sir Bernard said Labour’s foot-dragging on the Defence Investment Plan illustrated a “lack of war-fighting mentality”.
The PM conceded the UK was not on a “war footing” because the cash for the military had not yet been agreed.
He said the funding was being “finalised” and the final package was sitting on his desk in Downing Street.
Sir Keir told the Commons Liaison Committee: “I’m absolutely determined that I will make commitments with appropriate funding that I can be sure is there.
“I will not make commitments without being clear where the funding is coming from.”
During the session he was also confronted by a Labour MP about the “embarrassing” inaction on deploying a warship to the Middle East.
But the PM assured that Britain had the capacity to defend the homeland after Iran launched missiles at our Diego Garcia military base.
Following the thwarted strike, claimed Tehran had the ability to hit London.
Sir Keir said: “We constantly assess this, and we do have very effective ways of defending ourselves.
“I don’t want to raise levels of public anxiety. They are anxious about what they’re already seeing on their screens.
“They’re anxious about the impact it will have on them, particularly economically, in their households. And I don’t want to raise their levels of anxiety.
“I can tell you our military personnel, our security and intelligence services, are working literally 24/7 to keep us safe and doing a very good job in that regard.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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