The Conservative Party says it would cut funding for green energy projects and redirect the money into defence, arguing the UK needs to be ready for war.
Party leader Kemi Badenoch says a future Conservative government would move £17bn into the military, calling defence the government’s top priority.
Badenoch said: "The next Conservative government will move funding from [Energy Secretary] Ed Miliband's vanity Net Zero projects and use it to back our military to accelerate their war readiness."
The party says a new Sovereign Defence Fund, backed by private investment, could mobilise up to £50bn.
Under the plans, £6bn would be moved from research and development to the Ministry of Defence, and £11bn from the National Wealth Fund would be redirected from clean energy projects to defence and national resilience.
"Look at their record: their time in office starved our forces of funding, drove down morale and left Britain less safe. They did it before, and they'd do it again," a Conservative party spokesperson said.
Labour has dismissed the proposals as “fantasy figures”, saying the Conservatives left the armed forces underfunded during their time in power.
The UK government has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027 and 3.5% by 2035, but the Conservatives argue this is too slow and are calling for spending to reach 3% by the end of the decade.
Under the proposals, the National Wealth Fund, launched last year, would be renamed the National Defence and Resilience Bank.
Originally set up to support economic growth and clean energy, its remit was expanded in March to include investments linked to the UK’s defence and security.
Meanwhile, Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton said the pace of private investment in the defence industry was “painfully slow” and urged more young people to pursue careers in the sector.
Earlier this year, the government launched UK Defence Innovation, an organisation with an annual budget of at least £400m to invest in new technologies and boost jobs. However, a long-awaited defence investment plan, expected in the autumn, has been delayed.
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Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 24th of February, covering the latest developments you need to...
The United Kingdom Defence Secretary John Healey has said he hopes to be the minister who oversees the deployment of British troops to Ukraine, arguing that such a move would signal the end of Russia’s war.
India and Brazil signed a mining and minerals cooperation pact on Saturday (21 February), as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the two countries aim to increase bilateral trade to more than $20 billion within five years.
Ukraine could export several billion dollars of military equipment and services this year after authorising its first wartime foreign sales, a senior government official said. The country is also considering introducing a tax on arms exports.
Britain and Germany’s highest ranking military chiefs have made an unprecedented joint appeal to the public to accept the “moral” case for rearmament and prepare for the threat of war with Russia.
Italy said a fond farewell to the Winter Olympics on Sunday with an open-air ceremony in the ancient Verona Arena that celebrated art and sporting achievement at a Games lauded as a model for how to stage such events.
The United States and Iran will hold a new round of nuclear negotiations in Geneva on Thursday as part of renewed diplomatic efforts to reach a potential agreement, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi announced on Sunday.
Further Iran-U.S. nuclear talks are scheduled in Geneva on Thursday (26 February) as diplomacy resumes over Tehran’s nuclear programme following earlier mediation efforts. But will the talks move Iran-U.S. negotiations closer to a deal, and what should be expected from the meeting?
Mexican authorities said on Sunday that Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho and head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was killed during a military operation in the western state of Jalisco.
Syria has secured a $50 million financing package from the World Bank to support transport infrastructure projects as the country advances its economic recovery efforts, Syrian media reported on Sunday.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s new 10% global tariffs have come into effect, hours after the Supreme Court blocked many of his sweeping import taxes in a 6–3 ruling. Allies around the world are weighing possible retaliation, while markets brace for further upheaval.
Torrential downpours have triggered deadly mudslides and widespread flooding in southern Peru, leaving at least seventeen people dead - including fifteen killed in a military helicopter crash - as hundreds of districts across the country remain under a state of emergency.
The U.S. ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, has been banned from meeting members of the French government after not showing up at the Foreign Affairs ministry, where he had been summoned over comments on the killing of a French far-right activist last week, diplomatic sources said on Monday.
Thailand and the United States, alongside 28 partner nations, began Southeast Asia’s largest and longest-running military exercise, the 45th Cobra Gold, on Tuesday (24 February) in Rayong province, Thailand.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 24th of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
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