Britain would be ‘less safe’ under Labour, Rishi Sunak said yesterday – as he put security at the heart of his General Election campaign.
The Prime Minister warned that Britain is facing the most dangerous global situation since the Cold War – and said Labour would leave the UK less well-prepared.
Speaking at the Policy Exchange think-tank in London, Mr Sunak said Vladimir Putin would be ’emboldened’ by Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to match his pledge to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030.
And he warned that the Labour leader’s track record of serving in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet showed he could not be trusted on the issue.
‘Keir Starmer supported a former Labour leader who wanted to abolish the Army and withdraw from Nato,’ he said. ‘And Labour’s deputy leader, Shadow Foreign Secretary and many others, voted against our nuclear deterrent.
Britain would be ‘less safe’ under Labour, Rishi Sunak said yesterday – as he put security at the heart of his General Election campaign
Mr Sunak said Vladimir Putin would be ’emboldened’ by Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to match his pledge to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030
‘Labour want to pretend this is all ancient history, but it is not and it should worry us. Because the defence of our country and our values requires seriousness of purpose, moral clarity, and the willingness to make big choices and sacrifices elsewhere to fund it.
‘Either you believe that the world is more dangerous – or you don’t. Either you have the strength to lead – or you don’t.’ Asked if he believed the UK would be less safe with Sir Keir and Labour, Mr Sunak replied: ‘In a word, yes.’
The PM also accused Labour of trying to fight the election on the past, trying to ‘depress their way to victory’.
He added: ‘I refuse to accept the doomsterism and the cynical narrative of decline that my opponents hope will depress people into voting for them.’
He predicted that Labour’s ‘talk of doom loops and gaslighting and scaremongering about pensions’ would not work ‘because we’re a nation of optimists’.
Mr Sunak’s attack came as he warned of an unprecedented period of change and danger.
He said that Putin’s ‘recklessness has taken us closer to a dangerous nuclear escalation than at any point since the Cuban missile crisis’.
The PM said Russia was part of an ‘axis of authoritarianism’ alongside China, North Korea and Iran, which is committed to undermining the West.
Mr Sunak said that Putin’s ‘recklessness has taken us closer to a dangerous nuclear escalation than at any point since the Cuban missile crisis’
The PM said Russia was part of an ‘axis of authoritarianism’ alongside China, North Korea and Iran, which is committed to undermining the West
And he said that rapid technological change in areas like artificial intelligence would transform everyday life in the coming years.
‘There are storms ahead,’ he said. ‘The dangers are all too real.’
Sir Keir yesterday rejected the PM’s claims, saying: ‘We would not be less safe. A Labour government has always understood and I know first-hand the importance of national security.’
Labour accepts the need to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP but says it wants to conduct a review first.
But Tory strategists believe defence and security could become a key electoral battleground.
Mr Sunak said Labour’s failure to match the Government’s commitment ’emboldens our adversaries’, adding: ‘What do you think Putin thinks when he sees that? That the West isn’t prepared to make the tough choices to invest in security?
‘Because he is continuing to be aggressive, we need to meet that aggression with strength.’