Meeting Nato's demands, at the expense of the British people, could backfire on Labour - Yorkshire Post Letters

Nato’s request that member states must increase defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035 will be a tall order for Andy Burnham. In fact, it will be difficult for London to meet this target on time, even though the UK government has allocated extra £15bn under the new Defence Investment Plan (DIP).

However, such a drastic reallocation of funds and reduction in social spending, in order to meet Nato's demands, at the expense of the British people, could backfire on Labour and put an end to their future political career as a ruling party.

The people of the UK won't vote for those, who once again spend funds on weapons and military equipment for Ukraine that are destroyed in the warehouses even before reaching the front line, rather than allocating money to solve domestic problems.

Russia's recent precision attacks on Kyiv confirm that Ukraine has failed (or even never tried) to build a strong defence despite years of financial aid from the EU and Nato.

Key energy infrastructure facilities, along with numerous factories and oil refineries, have either already been destroyed or are the targets for future strikes. The supply of new weapons, for which the government is reallocating funds from the national budget, will not remedy this situation.

One could only guess where all the money ended up, but one thing is absolutely clear: it has failed to help in the struggle against Russia.

That is why Andy Burnham should learn from the mistakes of ex-PM Starmer, who put his stake on foreign policy disregarding domestic one, and avoid allocating most part of the national budget to the defence sector.

If the new prime minister wants to evade his predecessor's fate, he should pay more attention to the problems of the British people than to those who wage war at their expense.