Labour matches ‘cast-iron commitment’ to Ukraine aid spending during Kyiv visit
LABOUR is ready to spend at least £15billion on military support for Ukraine, the shadow defence secretary has announced during a trip to Kyiv.
John Healey said that he “fully backs” Rishi Sunak’s commitment to maintain the current level of lethal aid until at least the end of the decade.
But he failed to say how his party would pay for the pledge, given that it opposes Tory plans to fund the extra assistance by cutting the Civil Service.
Last month, the Prime Minister announced that he would guarantee at least £3 billion a year for Ukraine until the end of the decade.
He said the “cast-iron commitment” gave Kyiv certainty and demonstrated that the UK would keep up weapons supplies “for as long as it is needed”.
Labour’s support for the pledge was in doubt after it refused to match Mr Sunak’s plan to boost defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030.
Mr Healey finally confirmed it would honour the policy if it won the next election as he visited the Ukrainian capital with David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary. The pair held talks with Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainian defence minister, and senior officials but did not meet Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s president.
In a joint statement afterwards they said: “As Putin seeks to divide the West, we visited Kyiv together to send a clear message that a change in government in the UK would mean no change in our military, diplomatic, financial and political support to Ukraine.
“Moscow’s deepened cooperation with Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang requires us to deepen our co-operation with Britain’s allies to demonstrate that our commitment to Ukraine will outlast Vladmir Putin’s imperial invasion.
“The next Labour government’s commitment to Ukraine will be ironclad and European security will be our first foreign and defence priority.
“Labour’s action plan lays out a wide-ranging approach to stand with Ukraine, confront Russian aggression and pursue Putin for his war crimes. We will stand with Ukraine until it wins.”
The pair pledged to use future Nato summits to press the case for Ukrainian membership of the military alliance if their party wins power.
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak used a speech to attack Sir Keir over his refusal to back Tory plans to ramp up defence spending. He has said that he wants to increase the military budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP but that he will not commit to doing it by the end of the decade.