Keir Starmer: UK moving to ‘war-fighting readiness'
Keir Starmer has said the UK is moving to 'war-fighting readiness' and called on 'every part of society' to play a role in defending the country. The prime minister outlined his defence plans in a speech during a visit to the BAE Systems Govan facility in Glasgow, in which he said the government would 'accelerate innovation at a wartime pace'. He added that he wanted the UK to be 'the fastest innovator' in Nato
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Reuters
10 minutes ago
- Reuters
Portugal to meet 2% defence spending target ahead of schedule in 2025
LISBON, June 5 (Reuters) - Portugal expects to increase its defence spending to 2% of gross domestic product this year, four years ahead of schedule, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said on Thursday. Among the 32 members of NATO, Portugal is one of the countries with the lowest defence spending as a share of its economic output, with the government estimating that it stood at 4.48 billion euros ($5.12 billion) in 2024, or 1.58% of GDP. Portugal previously expected to reach the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product by the end of 2029. Speaking at his inauguration as the country's re-elected prime minister, Montenegro said the new centre-right government "will in the coming days finalise a plan" for defence investment to be developed over several years. "I will present at the next NATO Summit the anticipation of the 2% target, if possible already in 2025, with a realistic plan that will not jeopardise the social functions (of the state) and the balance of the budget," he said. U.S. President Donald Trump has said NATO allies should boost investment in defence to 5% of GDP and this new target will be a key discussion during the summit scheduled for June 24-25. Montenegro said the new investments will be developed by "national defence industries and related activities," as the government wants to "take advantage of this increased investment to stimulate economic growth." ($1 = 0.8743 euros)
Daily Mail
14 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Russia's ambassador to the UK blames BRITAIN for Ukraine's attack on its airfields that saw 40 planes destroyed - saying WE risk WWIII
Russia 's ambassador to the UK has blamed Britain for Ukraine's devastating drone attacks on its airfields. As many as 40 Russian aircraft at five separate bases were destroyed by Ukraine as part of the covert Operation Spiderweb launched on Sunday. But on Thursday night, the Kremlin turned its sights on Britain as its ambassador Andrea Kelin warned this country risks 'War World Three'. Without offering any evidence Mr Kelin accused the UK military of being involved in Ukraine's attacks on targets inside Russia, highlighting its advanced geo-spacial data technology. He issued his threat as President Trump told White House reporters he did not believe Russia and Ukraine would sign a peace deal. In an interview with Sky News, Mr Kelin said Britain had played a major role in the operation through its provision of geospatial intelligence. Mr Kelin, who has made similar threats to the UK over its support for Ukraine, said: 'This kind of attack involves, of course, provision of very high technology, so-called geo-spaced data, which can only be done by those who have it in possession. And this is London and Washington. 'I don't believe that America [is involved], that has been denied by President Trump, but it has not been denied by Britain. 'We perfectly know how much London is involved, how deeply British forces are involved in working together in Ukraine.' Eighteen-months in the planning, the covert mission involved parts for drones being smuggled inside Russia before being assembled near the bases and hidden inside trucks. Once Ukrainian saboteurs had retreated to safety, the trucks opened remotely and the drones flew over the defenceless Russian aircraft parked on the runways. While Ukrainian estimates of how many Russian bombers they destroyed have been challenged, the raids were widely considered the most audacious attack behind enemy lines of the conflict. Since then a furious Vladimir Putin has vowed to avenge Op Spiderweb and complained about Ukraine's tactics in phone conversations with US President Donald Trump and His Holiness, Pope Leo. On Thursday night, Downing Street neither confirmed nor denied the Kremlin claim. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said: 'We never comment on operational matters at home or abroad.' This was the fourth occasion, at least, that Mr Kelin has attempted to warn off Britain from supporting Ukraine following Russia's illegal invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. As Russian tanks rolled over the border, Mr Kelin advised Britain to stop its threat of severe economic sanctions against Russia. While in May 2023, he warned the UK against upscaling its provision of military aid to Kyiv. In November 2024, he declared that this country was 'directly involved' in the war. Footage of Operation Spiderweb, recorded as Ukraine's drones flew unimpeded over the Russian bombers parked on runways was flashed around the world leaving President Putin red-faced. In a matter of minutes, Kremlin aircraft worth tens of millions of pounds were destroyed by around 100 cheaply produced drones. The impact will restrict Russian sorties over Ukraine and likely save civilian lives. A jubilant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack 'will undoubtedly be in the history books'. Ukraine claimed more than 40 Russian warplanes were destroyed. The total is likely to significantly lower than Kyiv's estimate. However, the attack was still a remarkable success and deeply embarrassing for President Putin. The UK is a leading player in geospatial analysis, a field that combines data with geographic information to generate a deeper understanding of enemy assets. However, the Russian bombers would not have been difficult to locate. Their presence at the five airbases targeted by Ukraine was on the internet. While the aircraft were parked on the runway, entirely exposed to any surveillance, sophisticated or otherwise. Mr Kalin's latest threat is unlikely to convince UK officials to desist from supporting Ukraine. Earlier this week Defence Secretary John Healey pledged to increase tenfold UK provision of drones to Ukraine, from 10,000 in 2024 to 100,000 in 2025. Britain is also to step up its already leading role in the training of Ukrainian troops. At every stage of the UK's deepening commitment to Ukraine, one of Putin's mouthpieces, or the President himself, has issued a thinly veiled threat. As this week's UK Strategic Defence Review made clear, Russia is also engaged in consistent cyber-warfare and Electromagnetic attacks on British assets. On Wednesday, Mr Healey confirmed for the first time that a cyberattack could trigger an Article Five response by NATO. Previously, the UK's position had been that it would take a conventional military attack on a member state for Britain to call for a collective response by the alliance. On Thursday night, President Trump's pessimistic assessment of the chances of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia raised fears the US President could be poised to withdraw from efforts to bring President Putin to the negotiating table. His latest remarks were in stark contrast to his previous boasts that he could end the conflict 'in a day'.
Times
17 minutes ago
- Times
Now Nigel Farage needs some Five Star thinking
There will never be enough space in a single column — or one newspaper — to recount the long list of dreamers, ideologues and eccentrics crushed beneath the ploughshare of Nigel Farage's ambition. So let's focus on 11 of them and come to Zia Yusuf later. In the spring of 2019, as Ukip descended to uncharted depths of chaos and extremism, its former leader hit the phones and charmed his colleagues in the European parliament. 'Join the Brexit Party,' he told them. 'You'll be guaranteed a seat.' Thirteen of them did. A few weeks later, when Farage unveiled the slate of candidates that won the European elections at a canter and finished Theresa May, only two were present. The Brexit Party promised to 'change politics for good'. The unlucky 11 did not expect that mission to start with their careers. Casual cruelty is the very stuff of party politics. Here, it also had an unarguable logic. 'We had to be different,' Richard Tice, Farage's deputy, later told the biographer Michael Crick, 'and be seen to be different.' Six years on, Reform UK is a clear first in every opinion poll, is even a viable force in Scotland and is regarded by Sir Keir Starmer, quite rightly, as his chief opponent at the next election. Yet its leadership is grappling with that same strategic question. Until this week, all the evidence suggested Reform is different: different from the Brexit Party, different from Ukip and different from every other passing challenge to a party system many British voters now detest. Reform's electoral base is different, for a start. Running for the Labour leadership in 2015, Jeremy Corbyn predicted that non-voters would do something unprecedented and come to the ballot box for socialism. He was right about the appetite for something different but the polls tell us it is Farage who now motivates the chronically disengaged. But the biggest difference of all is how Reform has done it. There is no Limehouse Declaration, very little detailed policy and — like Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom — only one member who really matters. 'He's got this far,' says one Farage intimate, 'on vibes alone.' Those vibes are the new zeitgeist of this divided country — or at least half of it. It is much more than a dislike of Starmer or contempt for the Conservative Party. This is a rejection of politics itself: the aloofness, the arid argot of platitude and cliche, the rotating cast of graduates who look and sound the same. Farage's voters think, with some justification, the mainstream has proven itself incapable of exercising even the most basic functions of liberal democracy, be that protecting bank balances or borders. Labour MPs know this only too well from doorstep rounds that now resemble Orwell's Two Minutes Hate. Even if the Tories turn to the viral influencer Robert Jenrick, their path to relevance remains too narrow for comfort. How different can Farage afford to be? Reform has got this far by rejecting the old strictures of British party culture. Its payroll is a tenth of Labour's, which has around 400 staff. Yusuf, the multimillionaire tech entrepreneur, ruled Reform's HQ at Millbank Tower with an iron fist over 18-hour days. Sackings came almost as readily as electoral triumphs, disgruntled juniors complained of micromanagement, no spokesman uttered a word without his licence and every decision he took was inevitably met with a chorus of online racism. Now, after weeks of backbiting, bitter briefing and an unseemly public row with Sarah Pochin, the new Reform MP who chose to use her first question to the prime minister to demand a burqa ban, he has quit. The upshot is that Reform now looks uncomfortably similar to the old Farage parties, though for once the quitter has not fallen out with Nigel but everyone else. The departed chairman had more influence than any member. Indeed, until last year, in conscious homage to Wilders, there were none. Now there are 235,000 but they enjoy no meaningful power. Over the summer, I'm told, they will finally elect three representatives to Farage's party board but the leader and his appointees will enjoy a permanent majority. Then there is policy, which Westminster assumes is a necessary precondition for political success. That which exists amounts to an offer we would recognise from the Continent: the hard line on migration and generosity on welfare is the meat and bread of Europe's radical right. But beyond that are vast expanses of empty space. Fellow travellers who submit well-intentioned policy papers to Reform HQ find themselves confronting a wall of silence. Convention dictates that this will all fall apart before the next election, unsteady under the weight of its own costs and contradictions — and, even before Yusuf's hasty exit, that is precisely what Downing Street was betting on. But Farage does not do convention. We would not know his name if he did. After his success in last month's local elections, the leading man is now considering demands to hire a supporting cast, a credible shadow chancellor — an economist or another tycoon — to help cost his expensive policies and attack Rachel Reeves on the economy. These have taken on new urgency after Yusuf's abrupt departure. Who are they going to put on television, for one? The conventional route would be to declare that refugees are welcome and invite disgruntled Tories to flesh out his team. Suella Braverman's husband is already a Reform member. Surely a former home secretary would be a statement of intent? Jacob Rees-Mogg insists he is a Tory to his fingertips. But could he be tempted? These, I am told, are precisely the wrong questions. Defectors seeking asylum should look elsewhere. As Tice said in 2019, Reform strategists want to look different — and know they must be seen to be different, too. No party is spoken of with such reverence within Farage's inner circle as Italy's Five Star Movement, alongside whose MEPs he once sat in Brussels. Led by the comedian Beppe Grillo and powered by the internet, they broke the Italian party system and circumvented a media largely controlled by Silvio Berlusconi. One of their innovations was to present their ministers, most of whom were not political insiders, to the electorate well ahead of time. There may be 1,532 days until the next general election, as one weary Farage adviser told me this week, and what's left of Reform's leadership is reluctant to play Westminster's game. But on this week's evidence, a credible shadow cabinet from outside politics may well be what is needed to show they can still do things differently. Proving Farage can build a serious team, like that Italian comedian, may be the only thing that stops them becoming a joke.
