Ralph Raynor

This is the reality. No-one is going to put warships escorting a slow moving convoy through the Strait in the face of Iranian opposition. Ergo it has to be on the basis of negotiation, as I have been saying from the outset.

Remarks on the Strait of #Hormuz by President @EmmanuelMacron, on the sidelines of the state visit to the Republic of Korea: “We must be able to reopen the strait (…) but it can be done only through consultation with Iran.”

Thanks, Matt. You warned me that they’d come at me. They already had come at me. I will not be cowed. They have picked on the wrong person. I will not be bullied. My dad was a very proud @RMTunion assistant general secretary. He would say “do right, fear nobody”. I will.

My monologue from today’s The Times at One with Andrew Neil @TimesRadio FAILURE TO INCREASE DEFENCE SPENDING A NATIONAL SCANDAL. The failure of the Starmer government to increase defence spending by anything like enough is becoming a national scandal.  The need has never been greater in peacetime. Wars are raging in Ukraine and the Gulf. A revanchist Russia bears down on Eastern Europe. The Strait of Hormuz is in Iranian hands — and closed.  President Trump has gone from rightly demanding NATO’s European members do more for their own defence to wrongly threatening to pull America out of NATO altogether.  Yet the Starmer government sits on its hands doing next to nothing.  It sensibly commissioned a Strategic Defence Review when it came to power in the summer of 2024. That review reported in June 2025.  The government accepted all 62 of its proposals to reconfigure our military and rearm the country. It promised a Defence Investment Plan by the autumn to show how we’d pay for it.  Almost a year later there’s still no sign of it. Neither the PM nor the Defence Secretary can tell us when we will see it.  Meanwhile defence spending stutters, wholly inadequate to the tasks at hand. Trump’s War in the Gulf has exposed just how hollowed out our armed forces have become  — a diminished Navy, most of which cannot be deployed at sea  — an airforce short of fighter jets — a minuscule army incapable of mounting a major armoured fighting force — a country without its own ballistic missile defence.  Yet none of that can be put right on current or planned levels of defence spending.  Of course Labour’s inheritance was a terrible one. Fourteen years of Tory government were marked by a clear deterioration in our military prowess.  In the Cameron/Osborne years between 2010 and 2016, defence spending was cut in real terms by 22%. A fatal fall. Subsequent upticks did little to fill the hole that cut left.  But blaming the Tories only gets you so far. Rather than making up for lost ground the Starmer is largely standing still.  It inherited defence spending in its first year — 2024/25 — of £60 billion. It increased that by a mere £2 billion for 2025/26 — a pathetic amount in a dangerous world. And that’s in cash terms, without taking inflation into account.  It’s added only £3.5 billion — again in cash terms — for the upcoming financial year 2026/27. It barely takes the defence budget to 2.5% of GDP.  Yes, there are bigger rises in the years after that. But it’s still too little, too late — and barely moves defence above 2.5% of GDP.  Starmer has vaguely committed to 3% in the next Parliament — ie the early 2030s — and to 3.5% by 2035, which would be the next parliament after that. But these are only ambitions. There is no roadmap, no blueprint, no budget plan to get there.  Defence spending needs to be ramped up far more quickly than that. Instead, sleight of hand is exaggerating what small increases there are. Ministers try to slip in the intelligence services when counting defence. The cost of helping Ukraine. Unfunded pay rises for the military.  It all means that in real terms even the small uptick in defence spending is not as big as it seems.  There was a time when, as a share of GDP, Britain spent more on defence than any other NATO member bar America. It is a measure of our military decline that we’re now 12th — and still slipping.  The money is there if only there was the willpower to move it to defence — from the massive profligate expense of net zero, from the ballooning welfare budget, from a new time-limited tax, perhaps on luxuries, if that’s what it takes.  Other countries get the need to rearm — Germany, Poland, the Baltic States, Canada, even the peace-loving Scandinavians. But not Keir Starmer’s Britain.  It is his single biggest dereliction of duty. He needs to put it right. Before it’s too late. Or it will be forever the blackest of marks on his tenure in power.

BREAKING : This is Belt Treatment 🔥 Journalist –– Trump targeted you again with personal remarks. Do you have anything to say? 🇫🇷 Macron –– 🔥"We are talking about war, civilians dying, economies suffering. What I heard is neither serious nor worthy of response. A world leader can't use language he is speaking" Much needed call out

I know this to be true because Karl rang me about it 6 weeks ago, now it’s out I don’t think I am betraying any confidence. What I said to him then I still believe now. Keep telling the truth but be careful, because when they come for you they really come for you.

⁦@UKLabour⁩ deep split emerging.

Oh

The President of the United States woke up this morning and posted a 150-word personal attack on Bruce Springsteen. Not on Iran. Not on the tariffs crashing global markets. Not on the recession warnings. Bruce Springsteen. There is a standard psychological tool called the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. It has 20 items scored on a scale from 0 to 40. The cutoff for a diagnosis of psychopathy is 30.  The average person scores around 4. The average maximum security prisoner scores 22.  A panel of eminent psychiatrists assessed Trump before his 2024 sentencing in New York. He scored 36 out of 40.  The 25th Amendment exists precisely for this. Section 4 allows the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president unable to carry out his duties.  It has never been used. In any normally functioning democracy, the bar would be far lower. Most leaders in that position resign themselves. Instead, this one is on Truth Social at 7:58 AM calling a rock legend a dried-up prune. America is fighting a war it cannot exit in Iran. Markets are in freefall. Allies are making alternative plans. And the man with the nuclear codes is writing concert reviews. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

Macron calls Trump's remarks on his marriage 'inelegant' - BBC News bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c7…

Hope this is more important than another “we need to look as though we are doing something” event.

Revolutionary new party that's going to change this country's trajectory latest.

Just got my tickets. Can’t wait.

Don’t support the doctors industrial action but how on earth does cancelling doctors training places help patients? What a mess.

Oh

Labour will be very concerned about this possibly escalating.

Unbelievable that John McDonnell still wants to prioritise the WASPI campaign on top of all this

Just another example of the people who have spent years painting themselves as inherently morally superior because they wear a red rosette proving themselves to be anything but. These two things are connected. Unerring belief in yr own goodness means you never question choices.

And just for the record again, @KarlTurnerMP is one of the most respected, most decent, most popular MPs, liked across the House. And his political know-how is clearly considerably greater than those foolish enough to be 'briefing' (lying and gossiping) viciously against him.