John Healey must once again grasp that national security is paramount, ALEX BRUMMER says

Unless Chancellor John Healey proposes to pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat in Wednesday’s Budget, the most alarming missing element is a big uplift in outlays on national security.

Britain has tumbled down the Nato league table of military spenders. The US outlays ten times more than the UK and treasures rather than waves goodbye to suppliers with the best tech.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinks the UK needs to spend an extra £36billion, in today’s money, to reach the Nato target of 3.5 per cent of national output by 2035.

That is up from 2.3 per cent in the 2024-25 fiscal year. The increase works out at £500 for every household in Britain. Decisions on how to get there have been postponed until 2027.

In perhaps his least wise comment since becoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham has declared national security ‘can’t come at the expense of social security’.

Never has it been more obvious that the UK should step up defences against cyber-attacks, protect sub-sea cables, pipelines and energy infrastructure, and develop defences against modern drone warfare than in the past week.

Visitors to Bletchley Park near Milton Keynes will know the immense contribution that Alan Turing’s computing skills and codebreaking made to defeating Nazism in the Second World War.

The AI-driven discovery of a coding vulnerability in many of the nation’s computing systems, requiring a patch, is a red alert. 

As useful as it may be to stock up on emergency supplies, that is no substitute for building robust digital defences, as advocated by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey.

That Elon Musk, in the manner of a Bond villain, intervened in the world’s bloodiest and most strategic war between Russia and Ukraine – by taking down Starlink satellites that are vital in an age of drone warfare – is frightening.

Britain's failure to develop its own satellite capabilities leaves us dependent on the US, which has become a less reliable ally, as both Ukraine and Saudi Arabia, which is at war with the Iran-backed Houthis, could testify.

It sounded a terrific idea when Vodafone disclosed it intended to rent satellite capacity from SpaceX to provide better signal in poorly covered regions such as the Lake District. Dependence on Musk is a mistake.

The Government, meanwhile, has committed UK Typhoon fighter jets to assist Saudi Arabia in a defensive role. 

However, while those aircraft are operating over the Gulf region in the hope of keeping energy supplies intact, the UK’s own limited defences are stretched. 

This is especially true since the US decided that keeping advanced B-1 bomber squadrons at RAF bases is no longer a safe option.

Instead of sitting on our hands, the UK’s priority should be to build an ‘Iron Dome’-style defence system to protect the nation’s vital facilities from attack. 

In wartime, national security is paramount. Healey understood that as Defence Secretary. He should not back off as Chancellor.

Flower power

What can the fine art world tell us about financial markets?

In 1987, on the eve of a Wall Street crash that saw share prices fall 22pc in a day, Japanese insurer Yasuda Fire and Marine paid a record £22.5million for Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at auction. 

Overnight in riot-savaged Paris, Claude Monet’s Iris became the most expensive picture ever sold in France when an Asian buyer paid €50million (£42million).

An ominous signal for the AI bubble.