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…
HMS Dragon – Britain’s only high-end destroyer in the Middle East region – has now spent a full month at Souda Bay in Crete, 920 kilometres away. It arrived there on 23 March after a short patrol of Cyprus…
Dragon’s operation has been marred by what the MoD said was a “minor technical issue” which led to its routing to port for a “routine logistics stop and a short maintenance period.” Experts say the freshwater system was likely not functioning properly. The MoD insists “the destroyer will remain at high readiness”…
Navy Lookout says crewmen are undergoing a “mix of defect repair, systems calibration and force preparation.” It remains on Crete…
Speaking to BBC Newsnight the Blue Labour group’s primary ringleader Dan Carden suggested that the local elections will be game over for Starmer. Asked if he had confidence in the PM, Carden said:
“He’ll take us into the local elections and I think that will be a moment where the public have been consulted and there’ll be results. All of us as MPs will be looking at what our voters are telling us in those results. But there is definitely a question about the future of the Labour government, the future of the Labour Party and what that vision is that we are setting out for the country.”
He blamed the Labour leadership for the government’s malaise:
“It feels right now like we’re going from crisis to crisis and that happens because there is a lack of ideological vision and strategy at the heart of government… I wish I wasn’t carrying forward this message but I think you know we have to be honest and after the local elections it will be for the PLP and the leadership to look at where next.”
Rise Shabana…
Cat Little is up at the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. A key actor in the Mandelson drama…
Little has contradicted Robbins and insisted that the Cabinet Office did pursue vetting for Mandelson.
The Tories, supported by the LibDems and the SNP, are pressing Lindsay Hoyle to refer Starmer to the Privileges Committee. Sound familiar?
Badenoch claims Starmer misled the house by saying “due process” was followed in the Mandelson appointment. Starmer also claimed in the Commons with regard to Olly Robbins and Mandelson’s appointment that “no pressure existed whatsoever in this case.” Which is contrary to testimony provided by Robbins and disputed by the PM’s own officials…
No10 officials are said to be concerned that Starmer was so strident in his refutation. Could be worth a probe from the committee that brought down Boris…
The FT reports the National Crime Agency (NCA) reviewed fresh allegations about Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein as late as spring 2024, just months before Starmer appointed him as US ambassador. Downing Street was informed in the summer of 2024…
A senior British official arranged a meeting between the NCA and an American human rights activist claimed to have new information about Mandelson’s links to Epstein. The agency concluded the claims were “largely hearsay” and did not launch a full investigation. Mandelson got the job.
Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little is in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee at 9.30. The saga rolls on…
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.”