DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Ditch the red tape during this crisis
With all his dictatorial power, Vladimir Putin can be fleet-footed as he directs Russia’s military might against Ukraine.
By contrast, here in Britain we face being weighed down by bureaucracy and obfuscation.
Our military spending is now inextricably linked with Ukraine’s heroic fight against Russian aggression.
But despite an urgent and real emergency, Sir Keir Starmer’s Government says it must mark time with a year-long ‘strategic review’ of defence budgets before it can even draw up a ‘roadmap’ for increasing military spending. As we tie ourselves up in years of red tape, Putin will laugh.
Sir Keir Starmer, who flew to Washington last night for a major Nato summit, said increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of Britain’s GDP is a ‘cast iron’ commitment
As we tie ourselves up in years of red tape, Putin will laugh (pictured: Russian President speaks in Moscow on Monday)
The Prime Minister said yesterday that increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of Britain’s GDP is a ‘cast iron’ commitment. However, it is diluted by too many caveats.
The Tories pledged to meet the new target by 2030. Sir Keir – cautious man that he is – should do away with the paperwork and match that deadline, or improve upon it.
Then there is the question of the PM’s willingness to stand up to the peaceniks within his own party. Predictably, Diane Abbott has already said any money should go to the NHS and other Labour totems instead of, as she put it, ‘escalating war’.
With signs of progress at the Nato summit in Washington DC last night, Sir Keir must also show forward movement – and not kick the spending uplift into the long grass.
Channel changing
In opposition, Labour was fond of pointing out how many Channel migrants had reached Britain since Rishi Sunak pledged to ‘stop the boats’.
For the record, since Sir Keir Starmer entered No 10 his number is now 484.
That total can be expected to rise sharply over the coming weeks if there are calm summer conditions in the Channel.
The Conservatives were on the cusp of introducing a crucial deterrent in the long-fought Rwanda asylum scheme.
We would have been expecting the first flights to have been taking off this week had the Tories won the election.
For the record, since Sir Keir Starmer entered No 10 his number is now 484 (Pictured: Migrants arriving in Dover yesterday)
So it is one of Sir Keir’s biggest political gambles to have unceremoniously ditched the Rwanda deal, to our great regret, just as the European Union and others start to come round to the idea of transferring asylum seekers to a ‘safe third country’.
All Labour has to offer is the distant hope of a returns agreement with France – a country now in political turmoil – plus a renamed and slightly beefed-up quango.
Even worse, the frontrunner to lead the new agency is a former police chief who has said he is proud to be ‘woke’.
The new PM has conspicuously avoided adopting the Tories’ ‘stop the boats’ mantra but yesterday he uttered a not-so-vastly different phrase, ‘stop those crossings’, while admitting that things will get worse before they get better.
One of Sir Keir’s biggest political gambles is to have unceremoniously ditched the Rwanda deal (Pictured: Sir Keir Starmer at a press conference in Downing Street)
Sir Keir had better be sure his new plan will make a difference.
The British public, frustrated by years of dinghy arrivals, will quickly turn on him if it does not.
Rising levels of worklessness are ‘unacceptable’ and ‘economic inactivity is holding Britain back’, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has said.
Echoing her colleague Wes Streeting, she wants to reduce the 2.8million on long-term sickness benefits.
Let’s hope Labour continues to speak with one voice on this important issue, allowing much-needed action against Britain’s spiralling welfare bill.
