Keir Starmer is set to face further humiliation as Donald Trump prepares to criticise the prime minister over his defence spending plans. Sir Keir set out the long-delayed £15 billion defence investment plan last week, with many pointing out that it is £5 billion short. Starmer insisted the UK will be allocating 4.2% of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defence by 2035. However, this would still fall short of Trump's call for all NATO allies to raise defence-related spending to 5% of GDP by the mid-2030s. Trump is now set to share his thoughts in person as Sir Keir arrives in Ankara on Tuesday for the annual NATO summit, which will be one of his final engagements in office.
Iain Duncan Smith Criticises Starmer's Plan
When asked by TalkTV host Julia Hartley-Brewer whether Trump is right on what the UK should be spending, politician Iain Duncan Smith said: "Yes, I think he is. The biggest threat that we've faced since the 1930s is the rise of China, the power of China, China's financing of Russia." He added: "Russia couldn't have continued this war if China hadn't been financing and rearming them. North Korea's involved in the same process as Russia. Iran has been providing them with huge numbers of drones, that's how it earns money."
Duncan Smith continued: "We've now reached a stage where more countries in the world are totalitarian states like China. Everything is under threat right now and yet we're kowtowing to China and destroying our manufacturing industry by giving them all of our business." He compared the UK's lack of progression to that of other countries, remarking: "The whole thing is mad. He's right. If you look at Poland, Poland is almost at five per cent now. Most of the east European countries are heading in that direction. France is hopeless. France is worse than us which is hard to say."
UK's Defence Spending Decline
He continued: "Only a few years ago, we were one of the leaders in defence spending. We're now down at about 30 in the scale of people defending. We're really low in Europe, even Greece is doing better than we are." Duncan Smith also highlighted the funding shortfall: "Trump isn't stupid in that way. He will have spotted that it hasn't even been funded. The MOD wanted £28 billion, that is the absolute limit of what they could manage to operate with. They've been offered £15 billion. We know that's a complete mirage. There's no £5 billion to make that happen."
Scathing Attack on Starmer's Government
In a scathing attack on Sir Keir's party, Smith declared: "This Government is likely to go down in history as the biggest appeasement government since the 1930s!" The criticism comes as Starmer faces a rebuke from Trump in person over the UK's poor record on defence spending.
