David Shepherd

@Keir_Starmer @takaichi_sanae Make sure you fund properly the global combat air programme with Japan ànd Italy -our partners need to know they can rely on us to fund our defence requirements

Good to see you again, Prime Minister @Takaichi_Sanae. Together we are unlocking billions in investment, backing British jobs, and strengthening our security.

@10DowningStreet What are these clean energy jobs that Milliband ànd Starmer keep banging on àbout - windmill maintenance workers and solar panel cleaners? Most of the important hardware is designed and engineered elsewhere?

New investment from Japan will support jobs across the UK in clean energy that helps bring down bills, and cutting-edge tech. This partnership is delivering for Britain.

@EdwardJDavey Made up nonsense - ànd the country can’t afford childish LibDem stewardship

The Brexit mess left by Nigel Farage and the Conservatives is costing us £90bn a year, money that could have been spent on defence and tackling the cost of living. They wrecked it. We'll fix it.

@johnredwood The UK state pension is still significantly lower than the equivalent pension payable in countries such as France, Germany ànd Italy. It is àlso lower than the pension paid by the US social security system for equivalent contributions.

The PM’s cost of living champion thinks the answer to the pressures on budgets is to cut future pension increases. It just shows how far from the realities of living on a low pension they are. People pay in for all their working lives only to find everything is dear.

@DaleVince What a thoughtless response. Healey presumably resigned because he felt the proposed defence budget was inadequate for the needs of the armed forces. If that forces the government to reassess the situation ànd properly fund defence then Healey has done a service to the country

This looks like opportunism to me. Will the country be safer with John Healey gone, will the defence budget issues somehow get resolved…? Nah, this is posturing for self gain - in my view. Worse part - it undermines the government at a time when we have so much to deal with as a nation - not least, and with deep irony….handling defence threats. Defence Secretary quits, that’ll help. Have to say this though, I think the extent of the threat Russia poses is exaggerated, this rather sudden need for £28 billion seems a bit opportunistic also from the Defence Industry. On the other hand we keep hearing that Russia is losing in Ukraine - can they be a threat to Europe and be losing to Ukraine? theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

@IsabelOakeshott It must have been excruciating to hear him in court when he was a barrister. But a lot of members of the government seem to have diction problems….

Why is it that Keir Starmer can't EVER seem to find the right words? I for one am not reassured to hear that he will have "absolutely no tolerance" of extreme violence. The man is a talking cardboard box.

@Artemisfornow Ed Milliband’s madness seems to be spreading àcross government. The Energy Secretary wants us to import oil and gas that we could produce ourselves ànd now the Chancellor wants to pay to import labour to fill jobs thst our people could do. What’s next?

What? Seriously? The government wants taxpayers to pay businesses up to £25,000 to bring in foreign workers? £5,000 per worker! Whilst she has increased the cost of businesses employing British people! unemployment is rising, graduates can’t find jobs, we have the highest tax burden in 70 years and a migrant crisis! Taxpayer funded recruitment of foreign labour while our own people suffer is indefensible, tone deaf and insane‼️

@DavidGHFrost @AllisonPearson Time to stop being frightened by the men of violence ànd introduce a proper border between the north and south. Ànd review the common travel arrangement if Dublin won’t cooperate

The Irish happily check vehicles and people going south when they want to. Yet apparently we can't police our border with Ireland. Instead we let people wander across it & give them asylum. We must be out of our minds. The back door into the UK via Ireland needs closing.

It seems the only border in the entire Continent of Europe that may not be policed is the Irish land border going north. The EU can keep Brits waiting for hours at their external border. They can police internal Schengen borders, and do, when it suits them. /

@Telegraph Madness

Rachel Reeves will reimburse British firms £5,000 per foreign worker in a bid to make the country more attractive despite the UK’s growing youth unemployment crisis 🖇️ telegraph.co.uk/money/jobs/wor…

@JohnHealey_MP @GMB_union Good, but when we know what the increase in defence expenditure will be - almost certainly too little too late….

Defence investment should unashamedly back British jobs and British industry. Today I told @GMB_union Congress we will go further than any government has to deliver that mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

@GBNEWS Better to reduce employer NI

Labour to pay British firms £5k per foreign worker while nation's youths battle jobs crisis gbnews.com/politics/labou…

@IsabelOakeshott Ànd deporting them!

I don’t want to hear any more politicians lecturing us about not letting “hatred divide us.” We are not the haters. We are not the dividers. You lot in power: look to the people carrying out these monstrous crimes and take responsibility for importing them!

@spectator Everyone knows that there needs to be a significant cut in welfare spending in order to fund the increase in defence spending, which is why àny increase in defence expenditure will be far less than is needed - watch out for the smoke and mirrors to come

Where could the government possibly find the money to fund its defence investment plan (DIP)? That question has been the major factor behind the extraordinary delay in publishing it – and we now seem to have an answer, if not the plan itself. That answer is precisely the kind of thing that Keir Starmer and his Labour comrades would have railed against when in opposition: cutting capital spending. Around £6 billion-worth of projects are reportedly due for the chop in order to fund the DIP. That’s potentially hospital rebuilding projects, transport infrastructure and housing improvements delayed or abandoned. It’s the kind of short-termist, ‘sticking plaster’ approach to politics that Starmer pontificated about when he didn’t have to contemplate real trade-offs as leader of the opposition. ✍️ Isabel Hardman Article | spectator.com/article/the-ir…

@montie For God’s sake, why doesn’t Starmer do something about it! Just the usual pathetic inaction

And without slowing global warming at all. In fact - by exporting pottery and other British manufacturing industry to countries and regions with dirtier pollution regimes - we have almost certainly increased global warming while losing our industrial capacity. National economic suicide. Well done Ed Miliband and everyone else with their fingerprints on our green policies.

@HJB_News__ Does Lammy still favour taking the knee ànd paying reparations arising from slavery. Or has he changed his mind?

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has said racial equality "doesn't mean treating everyone the same".

@GBNEWS @CamillaTominey Why pick on pensioners? Despite the triple lock, the British state pension is significantly lower than the equivalent pension in France Italy, Germany ànd Spain. It is àlso lower than the pension paid by the American social security system for equivalent contributions.

'Every year that we've had the triple lock we've been in deficit.' Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt makes the case for scrapping the triple lock. 📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604 🇬🇧 Become a Friend of GB News: gbnews.com/support

@psimons50 @TiceRichard Allowing the closure of the coking ovens was the last act of industrial vandalism by the Sunak government, and the current policy of net zero makes it hard to see how new ovens could operate. The decline of virgin steel production is symbolic of our broader industrial decline

@DavidSheph29044 @TiceRichard It’s not good enough to produce coking coal. And we have no coke ovens now.

STEEL SCANDAL DUE TO NET ZERO! Huge delays to Tata’s Port Talbot Electric Arc Furnace…. Utterly foreseeable, claiming power issues….I fear it will never open. Thousands of jobs have been destroyed due to Net Stupid Zero. I will demand answers in the Commons as there is a steel debate tomorrow!

@DPJHodges The wishes of the family are important but they should not be used to shut down discussion of such an important matter - whether there is two tier policing in the UK. Starmer’s position smells of hypocrisy - he just doesn’t want to accept that it is true

Zia Yusuf's claim his priority has been respecting the Nowak family's wishes is obviously rubbish. But the fact he feels the need to pretend it is further underlines Reform's belated realisation they've got this badly wrong.

@martindvz It’s probably true that we would have had a better deal with the EU if Labour ànd the Lib Dems had accepted the result instead of trying to undermine it. Nevertheless UK economic performance has been on par or slightly better than the larger EU economies since Brexit