Defence ministers can only name progress on 12 out of the 62 recommendations in the Strategic Defence Review. The rest have presumably not begun implementation...
Asked how many of the SDR’s recommendations have begun implementation, defence minister Luke Pollard said “significant progress has been made since the SDR was published last June” and provided a long list of “examples.” Which only numbered 12 recommendations…
SDR Recommendations Cited by Luke Pollard — 12 of 62
Rec 3 & 8 — Defence Industrial Strategy published; £800m this parliament
Rec 7 — UK Defence Innovation launched; £400m annual budget
Rec 12 — Defence exports moved to MoD; best export year in 40 years (£18bn in deals)
Rec 16 — Armed Forces “Gap Year” scheme announced
Rec 21 — First ever Defence Diplomacy Strategy published
Rec 29 — “Always-on” munitions factories; 13 sites, £1.5bn, 1,000+ jobs
Rec 30 — 12 new F-35A jets; joining NATO dual capable aircraft nuclear mission
Rec 51 — Cyber & Electromagnetic Force established on time
Rec 54 & 56 — Military Intelligence Services & Counter-Intelligence Unit launched
Rec 60 — Defence Housing Strategy; £9bn for 40,000 homes; 1,000 urgent fixes done early
That is 19% of the total of 62. Several recommendations have passed or are approaching their deadlines and aren’t mentioned by Pollard:
Westminster is now in a Mandelson circular firing squad. Cheers Keir…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”