Russia and China will be ‘breathing sigh of relief’ because £5bn extra for MoD not enough, says Tory defence committee chair
Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons defence committee, told Sky News this morning that the extra £5bn for defence announced by Rishi Sunak was not enough. Pointing out that Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, was lobbying for twice that sum, Ellwood said that extra £5bn, although welcome, would not reverse the cuts to defence spending in the last defence review.
He also claimed that countries like Russia and China would be “breathing a sigh of relief”. He said:
The next couple of years are going to get very, very dangerous indeed. This year particularly, 2023, will be critical for Ukraine.
Britain has done brilliantly in stepping forward, pushing the envelope, because we have become rather risk averse, too timid, in dealing with aggressive nations such as Russia and China.
But we can only do that with the hard power. And I think Russia and China will be breathing a sigh of relief that we have not invested further in our armed forces at this time.
We are at the foothills of another cold war. Globalisation in its current form is actually dying. And it’s countries like Britain that usually step forward and other nations follow. We can only do that if we invest further in our defence.
Key events
Rees-Mogg says he’s ‘not fussed’ what Lineker said, but claims row strengthens case for abolition of licence fee
Many Tories were furious with Gary Lineker for comparing the language used by the government to discuss migrants with what was said in Nazi Germany. More than 30 MPs and peers reportedly signed a letter saying Lineker should apologise “at the very least”. It was organised by the Common Sense group, a rightwing Tory caucus particularly hostile to liberalism.
But not all rightwingers think the same way. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, is more libertarian than his Common Sense colleagues and he told GB News this morning that he was “not fussed” about Lineker criticising the govenrment. He explained:
I think those of us broadly on the right have to be very, very careful about attacking people for freedom of speech, so I’m not fussed about what he says.
But Rees-Mogg did argue that the row strengthened the case for the abolition of the BBC licence fee. He said:
[Lineker] can say what he likes. The issue is that the BBC is the state broadcaster and that it’s funded by a tax on televisions. If it weren’t, then we wouldn’t need to worry about its impartiality.
Actually, if we change the funding mechanism of the BBC, we could have a much freer media, as they do in the United States, where people are allowed to say what they think.
I think that would be much better rather than this pretence that the BBC is impartial, which it isn’t, and then having rows about particular presenters.
Asked about the licence fee at the morning lobby briefing, the No 10 spokesperson said:
We remain committed to the licence fee for the rest of the current charter. But we’ve been clear that the BBC’s funding model faces major challenges due to changes in the way people consume media.
And it’s necessary to look at ways to ensure long-term sustainability.
The BBC’s current charter runs out in 2027.
No 10 says it is ‘pleased’ BBC’s dispute with Gary Lineker has been resolved
At the No 10 lobby briefing the spokesperson said the government was glad that the BBC’s dispute with Gary Lineker had been resolved. He said:
We’re pleased that this situation has been resolved and that fans will be able to watch Match of the Day as normal this weekend.
The spokesperson repeated the line used previously about Rishi Sunak being “disappointed” by the language used by Lineker in relation to the government’s small boats policy, and the rhetoric used by ministers, but the spokesperson declined to say Lineker should apologise.
The spokesperson also declined to offer full backing to Richard Sharp, the BBC chair (and Sunak’s former boss at Goldman Sachs). No 10 is still waiting for the outcome of the review into the appointment process being carried out by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the spokesperson said.
Russia and China will be ‘breathing sigh of relief’ because £5bn extra for MoD not enough, says Tory defence committee chair
Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons defence committee, told Sky News this morning that the extra £5bn for defence announced by Rishi Sunak was not enough. Pointing out that Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, was lobbying for twice that sum, Ellwood said that extra £5bn, although welcome, would not reverse the cuts to defence spending in the last defence review.
He also claimed that countries like Russia and China would be “breathing a sigh of relief”. He said:
The next couple of years are going to get very, very dangerous indeed. This year particularly, 2023, will be critical for Ukraine.
Britain has done brilliantly in stepping forward, pushing the envelope, because we have become rather risk averse, too timid, in dealing with aggressive nations such as Russia and China.
But we can only do that with the hard power. And I think Russia and China will be breathing a sigh of relief that we have not invested further in our armed forces at this time.
We are at the foothills of another cold war. Globalisation in its current form is actually dying. And it’s countries like Britain that usually step forward and other nations follow. We can only do that if we invest further in our defence.
There are no urgent questions in the Commons today, which means James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, will deliver his statement on “IR23”, the update to the integrated defence and security review, at 3.30pm. After that is over, Andrew Griffith, a Treasury minister, will give a statment on the sale of the UK arm of the Silicon Valley Bank.
James Cleverly confirms BBC World Service to get extra £20m for its 42 language services
The Foreign Office has confirmed that, as part of the integrated defence and security review update being published today, BBC World Service will get an extra £20m. It says this will protected its 42 language services for the next two years.
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said:
As the world’s most trusted international broadcaster, the BBC World Service is a vital tool in providing accurate and impartial news, analysis and discussion in 42 languages to 365 million people around the world each week.
This one-off funding will allow the BBC World Service to maintain its unrivalled status as the world’s largest international broadcaster, and to continue playing its crucial role in tackling harmful disinformation through providing trusted, impartial news and analysis globally.
Last year the Foreign Office said it was spending £94m a year on the World Service.
MPs will vote on the illegal migration bill at 10pm tonight after the second reading debate. In a clear and hard-hitting report on the legislation, the Institute for Government thinktank says there are seven questions ministers need to answer to explain how it might work. The IfG says:
Without increased capacity to remove people, classifying ever more arrivals as inadmissible will not help the government reduce the backlog or the money spent on accommodation – or improve public trust in the immigration system. And at a human level, it has the potential to cause serious harm to vulnerable people.
Keir Starmer has urged the government to negotiate an end to the strike by junior doctors taking place in England today. He said:
The way to resolve strikes is to get around the table and to negotiate and compromise and come to a settlement. That’s what the government needs to do.
Many people will be really anxious today. They know there isn’t full emergency cover, they know that operations are now going to be cancelled, including in serious areas like cancer.
So the anxiety this will put upon people who rely on the NHS is huge.
Sturgeon hits back at Rachel Reeves after shadow chancellor criticises SNP’s income tax policies
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has rejected a claim by Labour that taxes are higher in Scotland for higher earners because the SNP has mismanaged the economy.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, made that claim on a visit to Scotland. As the Times reports, Reeves said:
The way I see it is the last Labour government was able to keep taxes low and invest in public services and we were able to do it because we grew the economy.
When Labour was last in power — and we were in for 13 years —the average growth rate per year was 2.1%. The average growth rate the last 13 years under the Tories has been 1.4%. And taxes are at the highest level of being in the UK for 70 years.
The Conservatives have become a high-tax party and the SNP too because they become low-growth parties … We’ve got to grow the economy.
In response, Sturgeon said taxes were higher for higher earners in Scotland because the Scottish government was more committed to redistribution than the UK government. She said the fact that Labour did not support the SNP on this showed it was “Tory-lite”.
Increasingly the Scottish government has been using its powers under devolution to set income tax rates that are different from those applying in the rest of the UK. In a recent report, the Institute for Fiscal Studies explained the difference. It said:
The Scottish income tax system has more bands and different rates compared with the rest of the UK. The effect is that income tax liabilities are a very small amount lower in Scotland for those on less than £28,000 per year, but greater for those on higher incomes – sometimes by quite large margins. For example, someone on £50,000 will pay £1,550 more tax in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, and someone on £150,000 will pay £3,900 more, in the coming tax year.
The IFS report also backed up Sturgeon’s analysis. It said the Scottish government had used its powers “to make the system more progressive, as well as to raise more revenue to fund public services”.
Starmer says Richard Sharp’s position as BBC chair ‘increasingly untenable’
Keir Starmer has said Richard Sharp should resign as chair of the BBC. As ITV reports, this morning Starmer said:
I think Richard Sharp’s position is increasingly untenable.
I think most people watching the complete mess of the last few days would say how on earth is he still in position and Gary Lineker has been taken off air?
This is a mess of the BBC’s own making, they need to sort it out and sort it out fast.
As Jessica Elgot reports, Starmer is echoing what Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, said yesterday. Powell also described Sharp’s position at “increasingly untenable”.
Even before the Gary Lineker row erupted, Sharp was already facing calls for his resignation because, when applying for the job of BBC chair, he did not disclose his role in helping Boris Johnson get access to a loan facility, reportedly worth around £800,000.
Here is the No 10 readout of the meeting between Rishi Sunak and Anthony Albanese, his Australian counterpart, in San Diego last night. They agreed Aukus was “an unprecedented endeavour which will protect our people and support our defence industrial bases for generations to come”, No 10 says.
Richard Dannatt, a peer and a former head of the army, has told the Sun he does not think the extra £5bn for defence announced today (see 9.24am) goes far enough. He told the paper:
This government is beginning to look like an ostrich over defence spending.
The parallels to the 1930s grow stronger – a threat from a dictator in Europe and a refusal to reinvest or rearm.