GB News: Praise for Liz Truss helping Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
Speaking on GB News, Mr Ellwood said that after 30 years of “relative” peace we were now facing a full conflict between states for the first time in “decades”. Mr Ellwood also argued that with the United States “hesitating” in Europe it was important to “look carefully” at increasing defence spending.
He said: “We’ve entered an era of huge insecurity and Britain has always played an important role in using our hard power wisely, to defend international standards and values.
“We’ve enjoyed 30 years of relative peace, there has clearly been the insurgency issue which has been very serious.
“But this is the first time in decades that we’re dealing with state on state aggression.
“When we look at the details of where this could take us in the next couple of decades it’s clear that our armed forces will be overstretched.
“The last defence review saw some swathing cuts to our manpower, to our tanks, to our armoured fighting vehicles, to our ships, indeed to our aircraft as well.
“We can’t do all the heavy lifting, but if we want to play an influential role on the international stage, particularly when we see America hesitating in the European theatre of interest, then absolutely we need to look carefully at increasing defence spending.”
Host Mark Dolan also asked his other guest, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone if Britain should increase its defence spending.
However, in contrast to Mr Ellwood the former Labour MP argued that it shouldn’t, declaring: “We’re not under threat”.
The former leader of the Greater London Council added that Britain had been spending much more than it needed to on the military all his life and most of it had ended up “being wasted”.
He said: “The simple fact is that Britain spends more on its military than the rest of western Europe.
“You look at Germany , it spends 2 percent of its GDP, we spend 3 percent and the simple fact is the west should stand up to Putin.
“Putin is clearly a monster, I would be quite supportive if NATO decided to intervene militarily to protect the Ukrainians.
DON’T MISS:
Macron blocks Boris on sending tanks to Ukraine as NATO tensions surge [REVEAL]
Brexit LIVE: ‘Uncomfortable truth’ EU shackles laid bare [INSIGHT]
Boris hit with major Biden trade deal snub [SPOTLIGHT]
“So I’m a bit disappointed that they haven’t already done that.
“But we don’t need to spend anymore.
“All my life, I’m 76, we’ve spent much more on the military than we ever needed to, most of that money has ended up being wasted.”
Source: Read Full Article