YouGov has released some pertinent polling into how the British public thinks any defence spending boost should be funded. Even war can’t convince them that another budget of tax hikes is warranted…
30% of 7,300 Brits say they would be OK with tax hikes to pay for spending on defence compared to a majority of 55% opposed, 30% of whom are strongly opposed. It’ll have to be spending cuts, then…
In separate research 50% of the public thinks the NATO minimum defence spend should go up to 3% of GDP compared to 21% opposed. No 10 has leaned on the Treasury to unlock more funds for spending on the armed forces. Bloomberg reports that departments have been told to expect as a worst case scenario cuts of 11%. How’s that for austerity?
UK DOGE has been looking at where costs could be cut. We have some suggestions…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”