Kemi Badenoch has said failing to spend more on defence “is not peacemaking, it is weakness” as Sir Keir Starmer and other European leaders face pressure from Donald Trump to increase NATO contributions.
The Conservative leader told the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference: “Totalitarian states like Russia, Iran and North Korea are coordinated in their efforts.
“Failing to spend more on defence is not peacemaking, it is weakness.
“And it only emboldens their threats to democracy and global stability.”
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Her comments came ahead of an “emergency meeting” of European leaders in Paris over what to do about defence spending following a dramatic change in US policy.
President Trump has said the US no longer sees the defence of Europe as its primary concern – a major policy change after 80 years – and called for Europe to spend more on helping Ukraine in their war against Russia while the US should spend less.
He has called for other NATO members to spend 5% of their GDP on defence.
Currently, the UK spends 2.3%, but the government has said it wants to reach 2.5%. However, it has yet to say when this commitment will be announced, let alone by what date the target will be met.
Donald Trump has said European defence is no longer the US’ primary concern
Sir Keir Starmer has said he is willing to send British troops to help on the ground in a peacekeeping role.
On Monday, he said the UK has to spend more on defence as “that’s the reality of the situation we find ourselves in”.
He reiterated his government’s commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence, an increase from the current 2.3%, but said “we’ll set out that path” only when the strategic review of defence is published.
“But part of my message to our European allies is that we’ve all got to step up on both capability and on spending and funding,” he said.
“That includes the UK, which is why we’ve made that commitment to spend more.”
There are concerns Mr Trump has effectively sidelined Ukraine – and Europe – as he held a long call with Vladimir Putin about Ukraine, but Kyiv nor other European officials were on the call.
A US delegation, including secretary of state Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the president’s Middle East envoy, is in Saudi Arabia this week to start talks with Russian officials on ending the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is on a state visit to neighbouring United Arab Emirates, said Ukraine will not be taking part and did not know anything about the talks.
US officials said there are no plans for representatives from other major European powers to join the talks.
This has caused indignation from Kyiv and Europe as for the past three years, under Joe Biden, US policy stated there would be no negotiations without Ukraine around the table.
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Donald Trump has said European defence is no longer the US’ primary concern
Lord Dannatt, head of the British Army from 2006-2009, told Sky News over the weekend Mr Trump has chosen a 5% of GDP target because that is what was being spent on defence during the last decade of the Cold War and meant NATO had the military capability that prevented the Cold War turning hot.
He added: “2.5% it isn’t enough. We should be moving more towards 3% or 3.5%.
“Now, we can’t do that overnight, but we can grow the defence budget over the next few years and we need to do so in response to what’s going on between Russia and Ukraine and making sure that we can play our part in the collective security of Europe.”
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Lord Dannatt said the UK’s defence capability is in a “woeful state” due to successive governments as he cautiously welcomed Sir Keir saying he will increase spending.
He called for other countries to “step up”, and said if the UK leads by increasing defence spending other nations are likely to follow.
“We have a collective responsibility to increase our defence capability, to deter further aggression from Vladimir Putin while supporting Ukraine to have a just settlement to this war,” he said.