As the UK government continues to pour billions into defence spending, public services across the country are crumbling under the weight of chronic underfunding.
In April 2024, the UK government announced a £75 billion increase in defence spending over the next six years – the biggest real-terms rise in generations, ensuring the UK remains by far the second largest defence spender in NATO after the US. Keir Starmer reiterated this commitment made by the Tories when he became Prime Minister in July 2024 and vowed to raise UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030, with intelligence and security spending potentially pushing it to 2.6%. Yet troublingly, the TUC alongside many of the UK’s major trade unions, including Unite the Union and GMB, have remained silent or even supportive of this decision.
Historically, Britain’s trade unions have been at the forefront of campaigns for better public services and a foreign policy rooted in peace and diplomacy. Unions represent millions of workers in the very sectors now being gutted to bankroll the military: healthcare, education, local government, transport, and social care. By supporting – or failing to oppose – increased defence budgets, the TUC is endorsing the very policies that have devastating consequences on the lives of millions of working people.
To fund this hideous increase in defence spending the government has cut back on vital public services, notably the shameful cuts to disability benefits. And despite suspending 30 arms export licences to Israel in September 2024, overall arms export values to Israel (and to Ukraine) have risen significantly ever since.
At the TUC Congress in 2022, a motion ‘Defending Manufacturing Jobs’ proposed by the GMB, marked a significant policy reversal. It effectively rescinded the TUC’s 2017 defence diversification policy and called for active campaigning in favour of increased defence spending – arguing defence industries support the creation of jobs and economic resilience. Defence procurement is being treated not just as a wartime necessity but as part of the UK’s broader economic and manufacturing strategy.
The argument that investing in military industries creates jobs is often used to justify ballooning defence budgets. But it is an erroneous argument. Pound for pound, public investment in health, education and green infrastructure creates more jobs and delivers greater social value than arms manufacturing or military procurement.
The truth is the most urgent threats to the UK’s national security are not military in nature. They are the threats that come from a rigged system that allows the rich to get richer while the most vulnerable suffer. Lack of affordable housing, rising energy and food prices, and underfunded public services like the NHS are far more pressing dangers than the potential of foreign conflict. The impact of austerity on public services has already been disastrous, and to pour more money into defence at the expense of healthcare, social care, and education is not just misguided it is utterly reckless.
It’s time for union members to demand more from their leadership. This is why Stop the War is challenging the pro-defence spending position taken by the TUC and backing the UCU’s resolution calling for a reversal of the TUC policy supporting increased defence spending. We urge all trade unionists to support resolution 37 – Wages not Warfare and to join us and supporting organisations and trade unions at the TUC lobby on Sunday 7 September outside the Brighton Centre. We are also organising a fringe meeting WelfareNot Warfare – Stop Arming Israel – Stop Starmer’s militarism on Tuesday 9 September at Friends Meeting House with leading trade unionists and antiwar activists. You can also sign our petition here.
By lobbying the TUC and attending our fringe meeting, you can push for a foreign policy rooted in peace and justice, ensuring that workers’ voices are heard in the fight against war, exploitation, and inequality. This means not only rejecting the use of public money to fuel foreign wars and arms production, but also actively supporting global struggles for peace.