British-American relations soured towards the end of Keir Starmer’s tenure as prime minister, after Britain refused to give the U.S. military support for its war with Iran, including the full use of British military bases for strikes on Iran. New Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Labour government is now seeking to repair the alliance.
Part of the challenge from Donald Trump’s administration to Britain is to raise defense spending to record post-World War II levels. Britain doesn’t currently have a costed plan to reach its NATO commitment to spend 3.5% of GDP on defense by 2030.
Ahead of next month’s budget, he said that Chancellor John Healey doesn’t need persuading about the importance of raising defense spending as he previously resigned on this issue as a point of principle, Streeting said.
“I don’t want any complacency,” Streeting continued, adding: “We can’t just send in John Healey’s resignation letter as our submission to the spending review.”
However, he noted that he no longer gets asked how he is cutting waste and bureaucracy since leaving his position of Health Secretary for the Ministry of Defence, despite the fact that procurement challenges have “plagued the MoD.”
Fairford latest
Streeting also declined to elaborate on Donald Trump’s comments regarding the arrest of five Britons under suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack near RAF Fairford on Sunday, except to thank the farmer who reported suspicious activity to the police.
