𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Families face higher food and petrol prices because of Labour’s failure to boost Britain’s military, Keir Starmer has been warned. Andrew Fox, a retired British Army Major, said households are suffering because the cost of everyday goods is now at the mercy of Iranian Mullahs. The UK should be in a stronger position to help open the Strait of Hormuz as the Middle East war rages on, the veteran said.

He told the Daily Express: “If Britain cannot keep vital sea lanes open, families here will pay the price through higher fuel bills, increased transport costs and more expensive food. This isn’t just about national security anymore, it’s about what people pay at the petrol pump and at the checkout. Weak defence means higher bills at home.”

The Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows, has been closed by Iran as a response to America and Israel’s strikes. In retaliation, US President Donald Trump – who has mocked British aircraft carriers as “toys” – has begun his own blockade of Iran’s oil ports, aimed at stemming Tehran’s fossil fuel income.

Embarrassingly, Britain only has one ship in the region – HMS Dragon – which reached Cyprus three weeks late following an attack on RAF Akrotiri. Mr Fox’s rallying cry comes as Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emanuel Macron co-host a meeting of world leaders in Paris on Friday.

Earlier this week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned of mounting pressure on the UK economy and soaring inflation because of the conflict. It also follows reports that Britain could face shortages of chicken, pork and other supermarket goods this summer. Whitehall officials are said to be drawing up emergency plans to tackle a potential shortage of CO₂, which is vital for farming.

Sir Keir is under intense pressure to ramp up defence spending after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused him of putting benefits claimants before Britain’s national security, branding it a “national scandal”. That followed a withering assessment by former Nato chief Lord Robertson, who said: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”

Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge said Labour had “prioritised welfare over re-armament” adding “they have chosen to spend billions more on benefits rather than strengthening our defence in a dangerous world.”

“Politics is about priorities,” he warned, saying that his party would bring back the two-child benefit cap and invest the savings into the military.

Health secretary Wes Streeting also appeared to demand that extra defence funding should come from Britain’s £334billion welfare bill. He told LBC the cash “has got to come from somewhere” adding that he wanted to reduce the welfare budget when challenged on how the cash injection would be funded.

A Labour spokesman later clarified that the government’s position was to “increase defence spending and reform welfare” adding that Mr Streeting was “a product of the welfare system, so knows the value of it, and the need to reform it, better than most.”

Even former Thatcher-era Minister, Lord Lamont suggested that more defence spending had been needed for years.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express the peer said that he did not believe it had been wrong to cut defence spending after the fall of Communism, saying “there was a long period of stability and no threat”.

But he warned that “as the nature of Putin became more and more obvious we ought to have increased defence spending.”

In a letter to Defence Secretary John Healey, Mr Fox urged him to release an overdue defence investment plan. He warned that further delays could place troops at risk and British households exposed to high costs. Critics are calling on Mr Healey to publish the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which was due to be released last year.

The document would lay out the countries spending plans for the armed forces, before the State Opening of Parliament next month. The DIP, he warns, is “now the clearest test of whether the Government intends to move at the pace the threat environment demands.”

Mr Fox served in the Parachute regiment, and completed three tours in Afghanistan as part of a long career on the front lines. In the letter he writes of his firsthand experience of “what happens when governments postpone difficult decisions,” and send troops to the front line with “clearly inadequate equipment.”

During one deployment Mr Fox says his unit were sent into combat with lightly protected vehicles that he claims “had no business enduring the severity of the threat.” He writes that the “generation of vehicles has since become a museum piece” and warns that the “lesson should have been clear: delays in Whitehall translate directly into risks on the front line.”

Mr Fox warned that the UK has “been here before” and that “delaying decisions in Whitehall and paying the price on the front line.” He added that a failure to invest in defence and make decisions quickly “translates directly into danger on the battlefield.”

“The threat is growing, but the response is not keeping pace. The country doesn’t need more rhetoric – it needs equipment, readiness and capability that arrives in time to matter,” he fumed.

Responding to reports of shortages of carbon dioxide the business secretary Peter Kyle said that the supply of the vital gas was “not a concern”. Speaking to Sky News he said he would be “up front with the public” if the situation changed but “right now, people should go on as they are”.

The government has recently provided a £100million grant to a biorefinery in Teesside so it can restart its production immediately in an attempt to show up the nation’s supply of CO₂.

The Ministry of Defence was approached for comment.