James Cartlidge: When it comes to our defence Labour’s missed the boat

James Cartlidge is Shadow Defence Secretary and MP for South Suffolk.

When I shared my policy plans for Defence with Conhome’s Tali Fraser last week, I stressed that we would learn the lessons from Labour’s big mistake – that is, do our Strategic Defence Review (SDR) in opposition, instead of paralysing the MOD as it waits for yet another policy document that will supposedly have all the answers.

I cannot emphasise this point enough: on coming to power Labour made a very specific choice on Defence. In essence, they put urgent rearmament on hold in order to boil the ocean, with all decisions subject to the SDR, which then came forward last June with no actual hard procurement choices – those were punted into yet another review, the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), promised for autumn 2025 but now months overdue.

Rearmament on hold, as war grips multiple fronts – that intolerable scenario has consequences, and causes.

On consequences, at a time when there is alarm at our apparent lack of warfighting readiness, Labour are burning through the months in which they could have seized a great opportunity to truly transform our military – learning the lessons from Ukraine to deliver a potent step change in lethality, which in the summer of 2024 we were uniquely placed to orchestrate.

By April 2024 the drone capability we were supplying to Ukraine was starting to show seriously impressive results on a real battlefield, against Europe’s peer military threat. Most importantly, this was not via the ‘business as usual’ of big primes taking years to produce over-budget, overdue capability; this was happening because of British SMEs delivering cheap, rapid, constantly adjusted drone and counter-drone tech.

And in February 2024 I’d published two strategies to take advantage of this – the MOD’s first Defence Drone Strategy, committing to adopt in parallel for our own armed forces the drone tech we were supplying into Ukraine; and a new procurement model, making the pursuit of ‘Minimum Deployable Capability’ the default for acquisition – not waiting an age to achieve perfection, but getting capability into use as soon as possible, and with most development occurring after adoption by the warfighter.

If this sounds theoretical, in April 2024 HMS Diamond was attacked in the Red Sea by Iranian-supplied Houthi drones and ballistic missiles. We were seeing then the same problem so visible in the Middle East today – relying on a limited stock of expensive missiles to intercept cheap drones. Our ground-breaking anti-drone naval laser weapon DragonFire will enable our warships to intercept drones for 10p a shot, protecting precious missiles stocks, so I ordered it to be procured via this fast-track Minimum Deployable Capability route – and the in-service date was slashed from 2032 to next year.

So this really matters to the here and now. The Defence Drone Strategy promised to learn the lessons from Ukraine’s extraordinary success against the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, by delivering “maritime strike uncrewed systems” for the Royal Navy. Just imagine if Labour had stuck at it, instead of putting procurement on hold, and we now had drone arsenal barges ready for deployment.

That said, such uncrewed warships would still need missiles.

As we reflect that reportedly we have relied on a US destroyer to intercept one of the Iranian ballistic missiles headed for Diego Garcia, I recall how Labour also parked the Munitions Strategy that I had developed with MOD officials – and which was the top priority for the fully funded plans contained in our July 2024 manifesto.

Replenishment of munitions shouldn’t be controversial – we have a strong consensus with the Government on supporting Ukraine, but we can all see that the entirely justified scale of our support has left major gaps in our own arsenal. Again, this matters now – our Munitions Strategy would have supported major procurement of air defence capability.

Take Sea Viper, the system our own Type 45 destroyers rely on to intercept incoming missiles. I’ve repeatedly called for the Government to accelerate its upgrade, known as ‘Sea Viper Evolution’, to enable interception of the most advanced ballistic missile threats.

In January I received the inevitable response via written answer. Yes, the Government sees how important Sea Viper Evolution is, especially in the context of “the Royal Navy’s pivot to a Hybrid Fleet”, with “new and novel approaches to ballistic missile defence”, i.e. arsenal barge drones as envisioned above. But then the killer sign-off – continued progress “remains subject to the Defence Investment Plan”.

So what of the cause for all this paralysis?

In their heart of the hearts, the Labour Government has never truly prioritised defence spending where it matters – in HMT, Cabinet Office and Number ten. The Budget red book detailed exactly how much Labour would spend u-turning to scrap the two child benefit limit, right out to 2031 – but there was no such information for Defence spending; no such certainty for an MOD desperate to know where it stands.

That’s where Kemi’s bold leadership comes in; a leader willing to take tough decisions to make our country stronger. Thus, as our spring conference was opening earlier this month, I joined Kemi at a factory making the British Army’s Boxer armoured vehicles in Stockport, to confirm just how serious we are about reversing the trend of defence spending trailing behind welfare.

Kemi confirmed that a future Conservative Government would restore the two child benefit cap and spend the savings on our armed forces – specifically, delivering 20,000 more troops over the next Parliament. That is, 6,000 extra regular soldiers and14,000 reservists, totalling 80k and 40k respectively – and what would amount to the biggest net increase in the size of the Army under any Prime Minister since 1945.

Importantly, the plan would include the cash needed for training, basic equipment and upgrades to Single Living Accommodation, i.e. barracks – but those new soldiers would also have the drones and counter-drone tech critical to modern combat. This follows the announcement of our Sovereign Defence Fund in December, ringfencing £17bn of public funding for Defence – including by repurposing billions from Ed Miliband’s costly net zero projects – to procure drone tech at massive scale, ultimately ensuring every part of the British armed forces could be trained as war is actually fought today.

I don’t pretend these extra soldiers would deliver infantry ‘mass’. As I wrote in the Defence Drone Strategy, mass in future will be found “in the uncrewed space”. Rather, it would be about delivering an Army that was credible and deployable, with regiments up to strength, filling key positions that deliver deployability – e.g. engineers and logistics.

Nor do I pretend that recruiting such numbers would be easy. As part of our ongoing policy work, recruitment will be a key focus – and that starts with recognising the challenge of holding on to those personnel we already have. That’s why in Government I took the decision to buy back the Defence estate, and in Opposition have committed to an Armed Forces Housing Association to ensure that restoring the MOD’s power to rebuild service accommodation actually delivers ‘homes for heroes’.

Above all, it’s why we’ve fought tooth and nail to stop Labour putting our veterans back in the dock and trashing Army morale; and why at last year’s Party Conference I confirmed that a future Conservative Government would restore full legal protections for our veterans.

Cutting welfare; investing in Defence; focusing on actions that can boost our military readiness right now – this is how we start to deliver a stronger country, with a stronger armed forces.