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Integrated Review speech to RUSI

by Mark Rowe

The UK Government’s Integrated Review of defence was necessary, said Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey in a speech to the defence and think-tank RUSI; but it should be published ‘without further delay, to bring an end to the confusion and speculation’, he said.

He said: “We’ve seen the emergence of hybrid threats, and hybrid strategies – where countries are operating deliberately in the greyzones between war and peace, between international legality and organised crime. That was so dramatically illustrated by the Russian nerve agent attack in Salisbury, and the disgraceful Russian disinformation campaign that followed it. So the idea of a radical review – starting from a clear statement of foreign and security policy, then calibrating defence budgets, force structures, intelligence and security priorities and development aid against that – was a good idea.”

The Review was aired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a November speech. Covid, John Healey said, has exposed ‘a lack of homeland resilience, as well as the changing nature of the threats we’re facing. Even as our service personnel mobilised to help contain the pandemic, so our adversaries were feeding disinformation and division into our communities.

“Covid, in short, shows what happens if you recognise a threat in theory but fail to do the hard graft to prepare for it. Because ‘pandemic’ had been identified as a tier one risk in both the 2015 SDSR and the 2018 Security review, yet when the virus hit less than 1pc of our PPE was sourced in Britain. It shows how essential public understanding is in a crisis and that the enemies of democracy will exploit every weakness in the resilience of civil society.

“And it shows resilience can’t be done on the cheap, but the costs of being under-prepared are so much greater, in human and economic terms. The security lesson seems clear to me: full spectrum society resilience will require planning, training and exercising that must be led by government and involve private industry, local agencies and the public. Some countries are ahead of us with such civil-military ‘greyzone’ strategies and I expect the Integrated Review to catch up.”

State-directed threats to Britain’s security have been consistently underplayed and the range of ways to attack us underestimated, he said. He stressed Labour’s attachment to Europe and NATO. While the biggest threat to stability for Europe is coming from Russia, he said, ‘China has emerged as the principal strategic competitor to the USA, with trade war, espionage, cyber operations and soft power being deployed with increasing intensity. Although this is certainly significant for the UK’s national security, it is principally a big powers contest.’

John Healey stressed Labour’s determination to see British investment directed first to British industry, not in thinking on defence, ‘but to our vision of the kind of society we want to build. When done well, we believe defence spending has a multiplier effect. As the Party of working people and trade unions we see spending on defence as a force for good in the country. It strengthens our UK economy and, as Covid has exposed the risks of relying on foreign supply chains, it also has the potential to strengthen our sovereignty and security. We want to see a higher bar set for decisions to procure Britain’s defence equipment from other countries.’

For the speech in full visit labour.org.uk.

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