UK faces calls for 5% GDP defence spend, ahead of PM's meeting with Nato chief
A Number 10 spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister is clear that Europe must step up on defence and security, and we are proud to be leading the way with our Nato-first focused SDR, the commitment of our nuclear deterrent and nearly all of our armed forces to Nato and our historic uplift to defence spending.
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Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Britain's debt is a threat to national security
Our sky high debt is a threat to our national security. This year, the cost of servicing our debt will be almost double what we are spending on defence. And in today's turbulent world, the fiscal buffer to cushion us from shocks is paper thin. The smallest tap could shatter our economic credibility. The Prime Minister has made defence and security the organising principle of his government. Given that, putting our debt on a downward path should be his government's priority. It isn't. Debt will be higher at the end of the Parliament than today. And with global government debt already around $100 trillion, and Donald Trump about to increase that by a further $2.4 trillion, who will buy our debt – and at what price? Last year, the cross-party House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee raised a red flag that UK debt risks becoming unsustainable unless tough decisions are taken in this Parliament. We set out a choice: taxes would have to rise, or the state would have to do less. Being cross-party, we did not opine on which option was best. The Government has taken tough decisions – but in my mind the wrong ones. Taxes are rising to record highs. The Chancellor said last year that her strategy would deliver growth, and that she would not come back for more tax. But the growth forecast has been halved, and further tax hikes are on the cards. Meanwhile, pressure to spend more on defence is going to increase. At the upcoming Nato summit, nations are likely to be asked to commit to spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence – double Labour's current commitment. So what is to be done? We need to confront the other option: the state should do less. The Government rightly says that the relentless rise in welfare spending is 'unsustainable'. Spending on disability and incapacity benefits alone is more than on defence. But having announced that action would be taken to curb the growth in the welfare budget, the Prime Minister is now blinking in the face of opposition. The Government – and the nation – cannot afford ministers losing their nerve to keep a lid on spending. The bond vigilantes have saddled up and are on the prowl. Nor can the Chancellor tax her way out of the debt quagmire: to do so would risk us entering into a doom loop of ever lower growth and ever higher debt. If defence and security is the organising principle of government, the Chancellor must set out a credible plan to stop debt's relentless rise and bring it down from today's giddying heights. Not doing so risks economic catastrophe – and our national security.
NBC News
8 hours ago
- NBC News
A top Taliban official offers amnesty to Afghans who fled the country and urges them to return
A top Taliban official said on Saturday that all Afghans who fled the country after the collapse of the former Western-backed government are free to return home, promising they would not be harmed if they come back. Taliban Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund made the amnesty offer in his message for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, also known as the 'Feast of Sacrifice.' The offer comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a sweeping travel ban on 12 countries, including Afghanistan. The measure largely bars Afghans hoping to resettle in the United States permanently as well as those hoping to go to the U.S. temporarily, such as for university study. Trump also suspended a core refugee program in January, all but ending support for Afghans who had allied with the U.S. and leaving tens of thousands of them stranded. Afghans in neighboring Pakistan who are awaiting resettlement are also dealing with a deportation drive by the Islamabad government to get them out of the country. Almost a million have left Pakistan since October 2023 to avoid arrest and expulsion. Akhund's holiday message was posted on the social platform X. 'Afghans who have left the country should return to their homeland,' he said. 'Nobody will harm them.' 'Come back to your ancestral land and live in an atmosphere of peace,' he added, and instructed officials to properly manage services for returning refugees and to ensure they were given shelter and support. He also used the occasion to criticize the media for making what he said were 'false judgements' about Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and their policies. 'We must not allow the torch of the Islamic system to be extinguished,' he said. 'The media should avoid false judgments and should not minimize the accomplishments of the system. While challenges exist, we must remain vigilant.' The Taliban swept into the capital Kabul and seized most of Afghanistan in a blitz in mid-August 2021 as the U.S. and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. The offensive prompted a mass exodus, with tens of thousands of Afghans thronging the airport in chaotic scenes, hoping for a flight out on the U.S. military airlift. People also fled across the border, to neighboring Iran and Pakistan. Among those escaping the new Taliban rulers were also former government officials, journalists, activists, those who had helped the U.S. during its campaign against the Taliban.
Daily Mirror
11 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Britain 'is at war with Russia' and 'in big trouble' thanks to Donald Trump
The UK needs to adapt to the new world of warfare and prepare for its once steadfast ally in Washington to no longer come to its defence, a top defence analyst has warned The UK is "at war with Russia" and "in big trouble" as the US pivots away from blanket defence of Europe, according to the author of a strategic defence review. Fiona Hill from County Durham was the White House's chief Russia adviser, and claimed the UK was in a challenging geopolitical position - caught between "the rock" of Vladimir Putin and "the hard place" of Donald Trump 's unpredictable White House. The dual US-UK citizen has built up a major profile and was appointed as a defence reviewer appointed by Lord Robertson, a former NATO secretary general. She claimed Russia has "hardened" as an adversary in ways that have not been "fully appreciated". Speaking to The Guardian, she said Russia has been "menacing the UK in various different ways". She cited "the poisonings, assassinations, sabotage operations, all kinds of cyber attacks and influence operations". In a harrowing conclusion, Hill said "Russia is at war with us". She made a similar warning in 2015 in a revised version of a book she wrote about Putin, which reflected on the invasion and annexation of Crimea. Hill said: "We said Putin had declared war on the west." She argued Putin viewed Ukraine as part of a proxy war with the US and that he persuaded China, North Korea and Iran "to join in". She claimed Ukraine had been decoupled from wider US support as "Trump really wants to have a separate relationship with Putin to do arms control agreements and also business that will probably enrich their entourages further, though Putin doesn't need any more enrichment". In a damning assessment of the current White House, she said the UK could not rely on Washington DC for military support and that Downing Street is having to "manage its number one ally". The defence review, published earlier this week, stated the UK's longstanding assumptions about global power balances and structures were no longer certain. Hill would not be drawn on whether she has advised Downing Street on how to approach US President Donald Trump, instead stating: "The advice I would give is the same I would give in a public setting." She added the Trump White House "is not an administration, it is a court" where transactional arrangements are made. In another bleak assessment of world affairs, she said: "We can't rely exclusively on anyone any more." She argued Britain would need to have a "different mindset" based on traditional defence. She went on: "People keep saying the British army has the smallest number of troops since the Napoleonic era. Why is the Napoleonic era relevant? Or that we have fewer ships than the time of Charles II. The metrics are all off here. "The Ukrainians are fighting with drones. Even though they have no navy, they sank a third of the Russian Black Sea fleet."
