“Pouring ever more money into weapons would inevitably mean less investment in the public services and infrastructure which people depend on to tackle many of the social problems we face”
By Richard Burgon MP
Below is an edit of a speech by Richard Burgon MP at the UCU “Wages not Weapons” meeting at the Labour Party Conference.
I want to start by congratulating the University and College Union and all the trade unions that launched the campaign against ever-higher military spending, which has now been adopted twice by the TUC Congress.
This is an issue on which there should be a major national discussion, but so far hasn’t been. It is notable that there has been much more debate within the trade union movement than in the Labour Party.
We need to change that as, wherever people stand on this issue, they should welcome much more consideration of it, given this is such a crucial debate about the direction our country takes.
Before addressing military spending directly, I want to look at the wider context for this important campaign.
Because the huge push for higher military spending is coming from Trump, who is pressuring governments into eye-watering increases, taking military spending to 5% of GDP.
It is a core part of his wider agenda, set out so clearly in his National Security Strategy last year.
Trump’s Attack on International Law
Trump’s new National Security Strategy sets out a vision where “might is right”, with international law cast aside because it is deemed a barrier to US power.
If you haven’t read it, you really should. It’s quite short. And very frightening.
It’s Trump’s response to a world that is increasingly multipolar, with different centres of power not just in the West but in China, India, Latin America, especially Brazil, and in Africa.
Trump’s vision fights against that in an attempt to maintain a US-dominated world, secured through raw power, militarism and gangster politics. And that’s in a context where the United States already spends more on the military than the next six countries combined.
That’s the fundamental choice we face about the kind of world we want to live in.
Trump’s vision. Or a world governed by international law, dialogue and diplomacy, and global cooperation to overcome divisions and meet the shared challenges we face the world over.
The post-war system, with the UN Charter and wider international law, was far from perfect.
But tearing it down would make the world even more dangerous.
And that is Trump’s vision.
We saw this with his call at the UN General Assembly recently for countries to leave the International Criminal Court.
That’s a clear sign of what he wants: a world of impunity where the US can act without checks or balances to cement its control of power and resources.
And Trump has already turned that Security Strategy into action this year with the bombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, the threats against Greenland and Canada, the devastating US war on Iran and attempts to strangle Cuba.
An Alternative To Trump’s Vision
Britain should not follow Trump down this path.
There is an alternative, and it was brilliantly stated by the UN Secretary-General in his recent General Assembly speech, which I encourage everyone to read.
In it, he warns against responding to a changing world with greater conflict, tension, division, military spending and instability.
Instead he calls for a world where multiple centres of power exist within a common framework of international law, cooperation, justice and collective security.
I believe these are the values that represent the Labour movement and which our party needs to champion: a foreign policy rooted in the United Nations Charter; international law; diplomacy and cooperation; seeking the peaceful resolution of disputes; and the consistent accountability for war crimes and human rights abuses.
On Ever Greater Military Spending
I started with that wider framing because it is the key context for this debate.
Of course, Britain must be in a position to address genuine threats, for example terrorist threats.
When we debate ever-higher military spending, the starting point should be, however, that Britain is already the sixth-biggest military spender on the planet, and that our military spending has increased by a third in real terms since 2016.
Those key facts are left out of much media coverage.
And unfortunately Britain is much lower down than sixth place in the international league tables of many of the things that determine people’s quality of life.
Take healthy life expectancy: this has fallen in Britain by about two years over the past decade. We have plummeted on it from 14th to 20th place out of 21 comparable high-income countries. The UN’s Children’s Fund, UNICEF, now ranks us 21st for child wellbeing. And the UK is 35th out of 43 wealthy countries for income inequality.
Pouring ever more money into weapons would inevitably mean less investment in the public services and infrastructure which people depend on to tackle many of the social problems we face and to give them a decent standard of living, and on which our economy depends to develop high-skill jobs and modern industries.
So a key question we need to discuss across the labour and trade union movement is: do we want to commit an ever-greater share of our economy to weapons?
Or do we want to tackle the care crisis, the deep poverty that scars our country, provide decent housing for all, and invest in education, skills and the digital infrastructure needed to lead in the industries of the future?
Others today will no doubt focus on the research showing military spending is also much less effective at creating jobs than investing in public services like healthcare.
Tackling the Pressing Dangers We Face
Of course, spending an ever-greater share of our economic resources on weaponry would also take key resources away from tackling other major national security issues.
National security is much broader than military security.
The Government’s own assessments identify some of the greatest threats as pandemics; cyberattacks; failures of critical infrastructure and the electricity grid; climate-related emergencies; and disruption to energy and food supplies.
The fact that we have had a summer of fires, alongside increasing public awareness of the dangers of AI, indicates the range of serious threats we face.
A secure country needs investment in strong public services and resilient infrastructure so we can withstand such crises when they hit.
Ever-higher military spending is clearly no substitute for the investment needed to prevent pandemics, ensure energy resilience or protect communities from floods, fires and extreme heat.
No To A New Arms Race
If we spend ever more on arms, it is almost certain that others will too.
That will mean more of society’s precious resources going on militarism and less on what improves life.
But it could mean something even worse: an international arms race that makes conflict, and even nuclear conflict, more likely, not less.
And let’s be honest, a world with a new arms race will be one of greater tension, when what we need is greater cooperation on AI, climate and the other global challenges.
Already our world is scarred by numerous wars, from Russia’s horrific war in Ukraine and Trump’s war on Iran to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the UAE-backed crimes in Sudan. And I could go on.
We need to try to break that cycle and pursue a different path, not least because, as Brazil’s President Lula highlighted at the UN, greater militarism cannot be said to lead to peace. As he noted, global military spending rose to a historic high of almost $3 trillion in 2025 while the world also saw the highest number of state-based armed conflicts since the Second World War.
So a real choice we now face is between a world governed by Trump’s vision of force, militarism and impunity.
Or one where we resist Trump’s push for ever-higher military spending and pursue a different path: investing in a better future for everyone and building a world less scarred by conflict and one rooted in international law.
Thank you.
- Richard Burgon is the MP for Leeds East, the Secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
- This article is an edited version of his speech at the UCU “Wages not Weapons” meeting at the Labour Party Conference.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please donate here or become a supporter on Patreon.
