Arriving at the NATO Summit in the Hague on Tuesday, June 24th, Keir Starmer announced that he was set to up the amount spent by the UK government on defence to 5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the next ten years.
He did not explain where the money for this would come from. It is calculated that such an increase would add around £30 billion to the 2027 target of £75 billion on defence spending. Later he announced that 12 F-35A fighter jets, capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, would be bought at a cost of just under a billion pounds.
This announcement highlights the choices he has made, to prioritise warfare over welfare. He plans £5 billion of welfare cuts which he and his cabinet is planning on pushing through Parliament. In addition, he has slashed overseas development aid and capital investment.
This stance is highly unpopular, both with Labour’s voting base and with its MPs. It is estimated that as many as 170 Labour MPs are opposed to these “reforms” and are prepared to vote against the attack on Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments (Pip). Some are rebelling out of principle, but a cynic would note that 80 of these MPs are in seats with a small majority, and fear losing their seats at a forthcoming election. A hundred MPs have signed an amendment to the welfare vote. This would stymie the Starmer cabinet’s plans.
Such an outcome would be a serious defeat for Starmer, especially when the government has been in power less than a year. Hence the frantic attempt to whip in Labour MPS to tow the line. Starmer has already made a U-turn on winter fuel payments for pensioners.
Last July Starmer headed off a revolt when 7 Labour MPs voted against cutting the two-child benefit cap. As a result, they were all suspended for six months, with only four of them readmitted to the Party in February 2025. But this revolt is of a much larger magnitude. Starmer and his associates feel that they cannot give way on this issue, in order to save Starmer’s bacon and to find the savings to stick to the fiscal plans of Rachel Reeves.
Labour has, once again, proved itself to be an enemy of the working class, through its series of austerity measures, its attacks on winter fuel payments, its continuing support for the two-child benefit cap, its refusal to pay WASPI women, its attacks on the disabled. Meanwhile it refuses to act over the sewage dumping by the privatised water companies, fails to prosecute over those criminally responsible for the Grenfell fire and the Post Office scandal.
The Starmer government has hitched its wagon to the arms race and to support for NATO. It tries to fan the flames of war, whilst designating Palestine Action as terrorists, prosecuting Kneecap, and handing out harsh prison sentences to an increasing number of environmental activists.
It remains to be seen whether Labour MPs are capable of mounting a challenge to the Starmer cabinet, and we’re not holding our breath. What is needed is a massive turnout on the streets to show our determination to oppose this vicious authoritarian and anti-working class government, and to put the frighteners on these spineless MPs.