Starmer at the launch of his DIP:
“You have some people in this debate who underplay the threat and deny the need to prioritise defense and securities. You also have those who say you can fund defence without making sacrifices in other areas of capital spending. And you have those arguing that we can just raise borrowing. Put it all on the never never. But let’s be clear, defence bonds are just borrowing by another name. We’ve looked at this very carefully, but the fact is doing this through borrowing would push interest rates higher at a time when £1 in every ten already goes on paying debt interest. And this government has fought hard to bring the public finances under control. And it has paid off helping to bring inflation, a mortgage rates down. We should not sacrifice that now.”
Burnham in a Bloomberg interview in April:
‘He said the country’s self-imposed budget constraints “will stay in any context” while adding that “there’s certainly a case, when we look at the pressure on defense spending, to consider that exceptionally outside of the rules.”’
Officials in No10 are reportedly still keen on the idea…
Badenoch said at her speech on Monday morning: “We are absolutely ready to fight a general election. We say the results in Aberdeen South: 50% of the vote. Because we can unite the country… It’s about uniting the country, for God’s sake, behind a centre-right agenda.”