Labour’s decision to cut defence spending is a sign of weakness and there will be consequences from it, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

The number one priority of any government is defence of the realm, and it was only a matter of time before Labour betrayed that obligation.

After repeatedly implying that it would maintain defence spending during the election campaign, it has been announced that Labour will cut defence spending by £500million, after giving over £1billion to junior doctors.

The cuts have targeted the Watch Keeper drone program, as well as the Navy’s landing platform docks, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, and the type 23 frigate HMS Northumberland.

But none of this should be a surprise of those in the Labour government.

Many were in the NATO opposing pacifist Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow cabinet. To name a few, the leader of the House, Lucy Powell, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Defence Secretary John Healey and of course, the Prime Minister himself, the Reverend Sir Keir Starmer.

All of these people wanted Jeremy Corbyn to be the prime minister. Now Jeremy Corbyn wanted NATO to be disbanded, claiming it could create great danger in the world.

He wanted to decommission Trident, infamously voting against its renewal in 2016.

Jeremy Corbyn is a man so committed to pacifism, which is a perfectly honourable cause that he occasionally found himself referring to enemies of the West as his friends, and the people now running the country wanted him to be Prime Minister.

This decision has come in the midst of the West facing two proxy wars and at risk of a third.

What must Putin or the Iranian mullahs being thinking as they see the UK cut back on defence?

How tasty a morsel may Taiwan appear to President XI. Seeing this weakness of one of the main defenders of the West and its values.

The world is becoming more dangerous. So the West needs to be signalling strength, not weakness.

Never forget it was only a matter of months after the deadly and poorly managed withdrawal from Afghanistan that Putin began surrounding the borders of eastern Ukraine.

The 100,000 Russian troops history shows that the West prevails against dictators only when it shows strength.

But Labour’s decision to cut defence spending is a sign of weakness, and there will be consequences from it.