MoD: Royal Navy, Army and RAF spending target should be doubled to deal with "raging" Russia, Lord says

Lord Robathan, Conservative, said “the time is now” to aggressively invest in the nation’s armed forces due to escalating tensions around the world. The issue was debated in the House of Lords on Tuesday (December 17).

The current Labour government is working towards spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence, with a timeframe expected after the ongoing Strategic Defence Review is published. Lord Robathan challenged the figure and said spending needs to be rapidly increase. “The time is now, the war is raging now in Ukraine,” he told The House of Lords.

“It gets worse and worse. The arbitrary figure of 2.5 per cent of GDP is not nearly enough. We need to really up it, perhaps double it, to where we were back in The Cold War where we held the deterrent to keep Russia at bay.”

A recent Russian ballistic missile attack on Ukraine’s capital in Kyiv has killed at least one person and injured at least 12 others, officials have said. Moscow has claimed that it was in response to a Ukrainian strike on Russian soil using American-made weapons. As previously reported in The News, a former Royal Fleet Auxiliary Captain said he saw two ships he believed to be Russian sailing through The English Channel earlier this week without an escort.

Earlier in the parliamentary session, Baroness Smith of Newham, Liberal Democrats, said there is a suggestion that Nato may announce a new target of allies spending three per cent of its GDP on Defence at an upcoming summit at The Hague. She said: “Is his majesty’s government willing to think about that, and if not, is it going to reject what might seem to be a very necessary change in light of the global situation?”

Two Russian ships sail "unescorted" through English Channel "due to lack of assets", ex-RFA Captain says

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Responding to the baroness, Lord Vernon Coaker, Labour, said: “We’ve been very clear to Nato that irrespective of the outcome of the US election, European countries are going to have to spend more on defence. As a first step to that, all Nato countries need to meet the two per cent target, which 23 out of 32 do. Our next step is to reach 2.5 per cent and set out a path to that. That will result in billions of pounds of this country’s money being spent on defence. That is the first step we need to take.”

After being challenged about the 2.5 per cent figure by Lord Robathan, Lord Coaker said: “Lets be clear, there’s no question of the deterrent not being renewed. There’s the problem. We’ve heard three per cent, now the noble lord seems to be suggesting five per cent.”

He added: “I think there is a question about how much money we spend on defence. This government has made a commitment to set a pathway to 2.5 per cent. We should recognise the huge contribution , under the past government and this one, to defending peace and democracy in Ukraine.”