𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Tories have a highly capable and deft shadow defence team. Mark Francois, their armed forces spokesman, is ever keen to remind journalists that Wing Commander MacIntyre is not an MP and cannot hold ministers to account in the Commons. Perhaps the Tories should be careful what they wish for. A snap election may hasten his arrival on the green benches sooner than they care to admit.

But politics is often won on credibility rather than procedure. Reform now has a uniformed face to put in front of voters, and the Conservatives must answer it with more than a voting record. Mrs Badenoch must now be on guard, because by appointing this new man, Farage may send her defence fight into a tailspin.

Since she took command of the Tory party, defence was the one airspace in which Kemi Badenoch could be sure of outflying Nigel Farage. Now it seems Reform UK has scrambled the jets – and pulled off something of a masterstroke. In naming Wing Commander Angus MacIntyre as its armed forces spokesman, Mr Farage has shown he can and will take on defence policy head-on. Wing Commander MacIntyre is no tourist.

With 40 years of service under his belt, he can speak on war with an authority and weight few in Westminster can match. Perhaps most striking is his record in Ukraine, the conflict that has brought the devastating reality and cost of war home to us all. He spent years coordinating British support for the war-torn nation, working from Nato headquarters and travelling regularly to Kyiv.

Reform should do more to talk up that record, because it gives them a way to blunt their political rivals’ main line of attack on their leader. The party has found its answer to the question that has dogged Mr Farage all week – his past description of Vladimir Putin as a man he respects, and his claim that Nato was partly to blame for the war.

Reform could hardly have found a better rebuttal than a man commended for helping Kyiv fight back. For Mrs Badenoch the timing is awkward. Only this week she was standing aboard the decommissioned HMS Wellington warning that Britain is “at war now”.

Labour – who continue to drag their heels on stumping up defence cash – flounder when presented with the cold, hard truth of this nation’s unreadiness.Defence was her strongest card. The Tories topped the polls on the issue earlier this year, capitalising on the Government’s weakness after it had to explain why only a single ship was available to protect our interests in Cyprus, and even that arrived late.

Now Wing Commander MacIntyre has gone straight for her party’s weak spot. He is quick to blame the Blair and Brown years for hollowing out the forces. He is quicker still to point the finger at the Conservatives for presiding over further decline during 14 years in power.