Sky News presenter Wilfred Frost perfectly highlighted the Tory hypocrisy when it comes to the state of the UK’s military and defence.
In recent days, fears have grown that the US will go over the heads of both Ukraine and European nations in agreeing a peace deal with Russia over the conflict.
This has led Britain and Europe’s defence capabilities to come under scrutiny as the very real possibility grows of the US withdrawing military support from the conflict in Ukraine.
Keir Starmer is facing pressure to increase defence investment, with some senior figures suggesting the British military is “too run down” to lead any sort of peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.
Labour has promised to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
Amidst all this, some Tory MPs have criticised the government for not increasing defence investment sooner, blaming Labour for the UK’s military issues.
Seemingly, the Tories have forgotten that they were in power for 14 years. In 2023-24, the Tories’ last full year in power, defence spending in real terms fell to £53.9bn. By comparison, defence spending was at £57.1bn for the last full year Labour was in power in 2009-10.
During an appearance on Sky News on Monday, shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns hit out at Starmer for not increasing investment in the sector sooner. It wasn’t long before presenter Wilfred Frost had to point out the hypocrisy at the heart of her words though.
After Kearns claimed the prime minister should have prioritised defence spending “from July”, Frost said: “I mean, you’re trying to criticise the state of defence spending, [seven] months into their government when this is a long-term issue after 14 years in power.”
The MP said she had been “critical” of her party for defence spending but claimed 2.3 per cent on defence is a “good amount.”
This morning, Frost made a similar point to Tory MP James Cartlidge, asking him who was “more responsible for the current state of the military: the party that was in government for 14 years or the party that’s been in government for six months?”
When Cartlidge swerved the question and simply called for the “government to take responsibility, he got a cutting response from Frost who said he had taken “no responsibility” and “didn’t answer the question.”
Related: Keir Starmer says he is ‘ready’ to put UK troops on ground in Ukraine to protect peace