𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Our new PM is keen to spread a bit of optimism. After all the doom and gloom under Keir Starmer, I can see why. But the UK faces a string of terrifying threats right now, and his cheery Northern charm won’t defuse them on its own. Instead, he’ll have to show some grit. The dangers are multiplying and gaining strength from each other. They include Vladimir Putin, the war in Iran, an increasingly menacing China and the unknowable threat that artificial intelligence poses to humanity.

Watching Burnham sit next to Donald Trump in New York, I didn’t get the feeling he was on top of events. He looked small and nervous. Foreign secretary Ed Miliband, consigned to the corner, looked his usual wild-eyed, bonkers self. Trump enjoys humiliating foreign leaders. Luckily, Burnham got off lightly this time. His time will come.

But Burnham has never concerned himself with foreign affairs. He’d much rather talk about Manchester bus timetables, which leaves him ignoring some hellish threats. And I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I use that word. Vladimir Putin is the biggest. As Ukraine’s drone defensive shield brings the Russian advance to a grinding halt, Puting is getting desperate, and he’s increasingly testing the rest of us.

Russian drones have violated Polish airspace on an unprecedented scale. It’s also violated the airspace of Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Norway. Russia is also pursuing hybrid warfare against European infrastructure, including cyber operations and sabotage, designed to intimidate or disrupt Western countries without triggering a conventional military response.

In April, John Healey, then defence secretary, revealed that Russian submarines have been operating around UK waters, gathering intelligence and mapping undersea cables. More than 99% of our international data traffic travels through subsea cables. Blowing them up could cause chaos.

Burnham has made the right noises about standing up for Ukraine, but Britain has to prepare for the possibility of becoming a target itself. Healey resigned in June because Starmer wouldn’t commit to increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. As chancellor, Healey is just as bad. He’s put the defence review off until next year, and the 3.5% spending target to 2035. That’s a ridiculous timetable. Putin is threatening us today.

Burnham has shown where his priorities lie. Welfare spending was £314billion when Labour entered government in 2024. It’s now forecast to rocket to £409billion by 2030. Burnham said he won’t sacrifice social security for national security. Doesn’t he realise you can’t have the first without the second?

Our armed forces are also being called upon in the Middle East. Burnham has agreed to provide an RAF Voyager aircraft to support Saudi Arabia’s defensive operations against Houthi attacks in Yemen. If that war widens, we face a horrendous energy crisis this winter.

As well as Russia and Iran, there’s Xi Jinping’s China. It’s involved in an AI arms race with the US, yet Britain has left our critical national infrastructure wide open to China, as net zero depends on the country’s solar panels, wind-turbine components and electric-vehicle batteries, and other tech.

Given all these threats, Britain needs a government capable of defending its national interests. Instead we got Starmer, whose first big foreign policy move was to surrender the Chagos Islands, at enormous cost, while letting lawyers pursue our own veterans through the courts. Who would put their life on the line for such a country?

Chagos risks a domino effect as Argentina renews its claims over the Falklands. So what’s Miliband’s priority? Slapping sanctions on Israeli settlers on the West Bank, while presumably hoping the Israelis will continue to help us stop Islamist terror attacks on the UK. We need to rearm, and we need to get real. The world is a scary place. The more Burnham fails to defend our vital strategic interests, the scarier it all feels.