Arms manufacturers the only winners from grotesque defence spending review
Responding to the government’s defence spending review, Stop the War vice chair Chris Nineham said:
“Increasing defence spending to up to 3% of GDP, procuring more and more weapons of war, including the commissioning of 12 new attack submarines, investing £1.5b for more munitions factories and £15b for nuclear weapons production, and all the while slashing welfare, is simply grotesque.
“Keir Starmer, John Healey and the Ministry of Defence have spent the days before the release of this spending review painting a picture of the most heightened military and security threat since the end of the cold war. They say they want the UK to move to ‘war-fighting readiness’, but talking up a new era of threat while tying an ailing economy even more to military production only makes the threat of war more likely.
“The reality is that Russia’s economy is roughly the size of Spain and Putin is vastly outnumbered militarily by NATO powers. He has barely occupied 18% of Ukraine and poses no threat to Warsaw or Berlin, let alone London.
“The pledges in this review are even more grotesque given the eye-watering record profits being made by the arms manufacturers and their shareholders as a result of the endless conflicts which are only perpetuated by these levels of increased defence spending – paid for with our tax pounds and by slashing the welfare budget.
“The claim that building more munitions factories and submarines will help British jobs should fool no one. As the Alternative Defence Review explains, military spending generates a smaller economic multiplier than any other public investments, meaning it generates less overall economic activity and fewer secondary benefits than spending on essential services and infrastructure.
“Any big increase in spending, such as on housing and health, would have a more beneficial impact on the economy and create more jobs. Build new hospitals, schools and homes instead, because the security at home that the government talks of is created by ensuring people have a roof over their heads, decent education and access to good healthcare, not by creating an ever more dangerous world through this drive to militarism.
“The only beneficiaries of this defence review will be the warmongers and the arms companies. They want wars to continue. It is not in any of our interests to do anything but oppose them.
“So we urge everyone who is able to join the #WelfareNotWarfare bloc at next Saturday’s People’s Assembly national demonstration to send a clear message to the government that this drive to war is not in our name.”
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