KEIR Starmer set out the £15 billion defence investment plan (Dip) in a major speech at a drone factory in England today.
The Prime Minister acknowledged some other areas of UK Government spending would be slashed in order to fund defence, with road and energy projects scrapped to pay for the military – although it was unclear what projects may actually be impacted specifically.
“When the world is arming and aggression is rising, the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it,” he said.
“The best way to defend is to deter, to have the strength to make your adversaries think again before they act.
“And that is what we are doing.”
Annual defence spending will also increase from £54 billion when Labour came to power to £80bn by 2029, Starmer said.
But what implications does this announcement have for Scotland?
The main announcement that has specific Scottish repercussions was Keir Starmer promising a £64 billion upgrade to Britain’s nuclear deterrent
He said the investment in “renewing” the UK’s nuclear deterrent would include spending on new Dreadnought submarines, a new sovereign warhead and 12 F35-A jets capable of carry nuclear weapons.
The new Dreadnought submarines will see four boats replace the current Vanguard class from the 2030s, while Starmer announced plans to buy nuclear-capable jets at last year’s Nato summit in The Hague.
Some of the money for the nuclear deterrent will also form part of a decade-long £26 billion overhaul of naval bases at Faslane on the Clyde – as well as England’s Portsmouth and Devonport – dubbed “Project Royal Oak”.
HM Naval Base Clyde, at Faslane on the west coast of Scotland, is home to the UK’s nuclear submarines.
The nearby Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport is responsible for storing, processing, maintaining and issuing key elements of the UK’s Trident nuclear missile system.
In 2024, former Tory advisor Dominic Cummings alleged that there was a hidden "scandal of nuclear weapons infrastructure which is a dangerous disaster and a budget nightmare of hard-to-believe and highly classified proportions".
The UK has four Vanguard-class submarines based at Faslane, which were each built with a 25-year lifespan – a limit imposed by the lifespan of major components.
The four submarines commenced sea trials or saw their reactor go critical in 1992, 1994, 1996, and 1999 respectively, meaning even the newest is now past its 25-year lifespan.
The UK Government noted in 2007 that it “should be possible” to extend these lifespans by five years to a total of 30.
In the 2030s, the Vanguard-class submarines are due to be replaced with new Dreadnought-class boats – which are currently being built by BAE Systems in Barrow-in-Furness.
The SNP are opposed the nuclear weaponry being based in Scotland.
