THE UK needs to boost spending on defence “as soon as possible”, Labour MP and former Royal Marine Alex Ballinger has said.
He told GB News: “I think it’s really important that we up defence spending as soon as possible.
“The threats we’re seeing in the Middle East, the threats we’re seeing from the Russians, this hybrid warfare that’s being conducted against us. It’s undersea cables, it’s disinformation. It’s trying to bribe our officials, as we saw with Nathan Gill.
“We need to invest as soon as possible in new technologies to protect us. And I would support increasing our defence spending up to 3% as soon as it’s practical.”
Asked if the benefits bill should be reduced to pay for it, he said: “There is some important work happening on benefits. And I was talking to Pat McFadden only a couple of weeks ago about our ambition to get more young people, more NEETs, into work.
“Far too many, one in eight, of course, not working at the moment, and far too many of them end up on welfare.
“So there is an important job here to reduce our welfare spending through getting more young people into work. And I would support that as part of a broader package.
“I think we absolutely need to look at that welfare budget and do those things that the government is already looking at to get people back into work and off those benefits.
“It’s not just off benefits. It’s off that lifestyle. It’s off that very unhealthy unemployment that is causing real problems.”
He also said that it was not all over for NATO, despite President Trump’s comments: “It has been very damaging that, the comments from Trump, but he’s not the only person in the American system.
“I think when you talk to senior figures in the Pentagon and senior figures in the American military, they are extremely supportive of NATO, and they see the real benefits, and our connection with them will continue.”
