Exclusive:Scots Labour MP urges UK Government to 'move as fast as possible' in increasing defence spending
Graeme Downie said the threat from Vladimir Putin “is not an abstract conflict” and warned that it is “happening close to UK and Scottish Borders in the North Sea and North Atlantic”.
A Scottish MP has urged UK Government to "move as fast as possible" to increase defence spending because Scotland "is a frontline nation in a current and ongoing conflict with Russia".
Graeme Downie, Labour MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, said the threat from Vladimir Putin was “not an abstract conflict” and “happening close to UK and Scottish Borders in the North Sea and North Atlantic”.
His comments come amid reports that the UK Government is considering bringing forward its target to increase defence spending.
Mr Downie said: “The UK, and Scotland in particular, is a frontline nation in a current and ongoing conflict with Russia yet there is not nearly enough discussion of how threats from Vladimir Putin are putting the way we live our lives at risk and what we need to do to deter these threats and protect ourselves.
“This is not an abstract conflict happening somewhere else, it is happening close to UK and Scottish Borders in the North Sea and North Atlantic and it is happening within the country from cyber attacks to the spreading of misinformation.
“When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, energy prices spiked and it was the poorest people in the country that were hurt the most. Unless we properly protect our national security, future actions in our conflict with Russia will directly impact our economy and, once again, hurt most those which have the least.
“At the Munich Security Conference at the weekend, the Prime Minister rightly talked about how we must collaborate closer with NATO and European allies but we must go as fast as we can to take action.
“The government is moving in the right direction but they must continue that momentum and move as fast as possible."
The Prime Minister has already committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP next year and three per cent after the next election.
But the BBC has reported he is now mulling bringing forward the three per cent target to 2029, after the head of the UK’s armed forces set out the “moral” case for rearmament.
Asked about the reports at an event in London on Monday, Sir Keir Starmer would not confirm that he was considering bringing forward the target, but said Europe needed to “step up when it comes to defence and security”.
The Prime Minister said: “We have a threat of Russian aggression. In a few days’ time it’s the four-year anniversary of the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
“We want a just and lasting peace, but that will not extinguish the Russian threat, and we need to be alert to that, because that’s going to affect every single person in this room, every single person in this country, so we need to step up.
“That means on defence spending, we need to go faster.”
Sir Keir added that, as well as increasing spending, improving Britain’s defence also involved collaborating with “like-minded countries, particularly in Europe”, following his call at the Munich Security Conference for a shift towards “a more European Nato”.
It comes after the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, issued a joint call with his German counterpart for a “step change in our defence and security”.
Warning that Russia had “shifted decisively westward”, the pair said Europe “must now confront uncomfortable truths about its security”.
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