Following the release of his government’s Defence Investment Plan (DIP), more than 50 organisations from across the UK have jointly written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to warn against the government’s increasing focus of British public resources on the military over other forms of international engagement.
The 55 signatories include major humanitarian organisations, international affairs think tanks, peacebuilding NGOs, faith-based groups, and those campaigning on climate, disarmament, conflict and human rights issues.
The letter reflects a shared concern about the direction of UK security policy in a world beset by conflict, inequality and climate and ecological breakdown. Current UK commitments and spending plans, confirmed and again boosted in the DIP, vastly skew funding away from tackling such issues and towards preparing to fight a major war. In many respects they continue to reduce the UK’s ability to analyse and engage effectively with global challenges as they intensify.
As the letter notes, since last year’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR), the government has repeatedly heralded a national conversation on security, which has yet to materialise. The signatories would welcome such a genuine conversation and highlight research that shows that the public views security in far broader terms than simple military threats, as well as supporting a nuanced and more sustainable range of responses.
The letter urges the PM to resist pressures from allies at the NATO Summit in Ankara (07-08 July) to further increase or accelerate military spending, and to commit instead to a more cooperative, internationalist future in which capabilities to build peace, sustainability and societal resilience are reprioritised.
A copy of the letter has been sent to Andy Burnham MP, as the most likely imminent successor to Keir Starmer as PM.