{"id":46628,"date":"2025-10-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=46628"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:33:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T13:33:21","slug":"warfares-waste-is-welfares-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/global-politics\/war\/warfares-waste-is-welfares-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Warfare’s waste is welfare’s loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tens of billions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money, have been wasted<\/a> by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on weapons projects that have been repeatedly delayed or abandoned, were ill-conceived from the start or will soon be irrelevant to modern warfare. The government\u2019s recent Strategic Defence Review<\/a> promises that many more billions \u2013 which could otherwise be spent on vital public services and civil infrastructure \u2013 will be wasted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Starmer government is refusing to learn from the past. It wants to increase military spending by \u00a320 billion a year by the end of the decade, with the Prime Minister claiming<\/a> increased spending on arms will provide a much-needed \u2018boost\u2019 to Britain\u2019s growth, output and employment. The evidence suggests otherwise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arms sales make up just 0.004 per cent of Treasury revenue<\/a> and the arms industry accounts for just one per cent of Britain\u2019s economic output. The government\u2019s own figures<\/a> show that its new \u2018strategic partnership\u2019 with US IT data-mining giant Palantir (co-founded by Peter Thiel<\/a>, a right-wing tech investor close to the Trump administration) will create just<\/a> 350 jobs from a \u00a31.5 billion spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claims about arms companies\u2019 contribution to the economy \u2013 and to Britain\u2019s \u2018national security\u2019 \u2013 are a hugely exaggerated \u2018myth<\/a>\u2019, confirmed by the recently published Alternative Defence Review<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military-industrial lobby<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most members of parliament however continue to defer to a military-industrial lobby that operates without any effective independent scrutiny. That lobby is bolstered by the \u2018special relationship\u2019 between senior defence and military officials and leading arms companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018revolving door<\/a> syndrome\u2019 is more accurately a one-way corridor from Whitehall to private companies. As many as 40 per cent<\/a> of senior military and MoD personnel have taken on executive roles in arms and private security companies after leaving government employment. In one recent example<\/a>, a former deputy chief of the defence staff was appointed UK director of the major Israeli arms company, Elbit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Audit Office (NAO), parliament\u2019s financial watchdog, repeatedly points to mismanagement and profligacy<\/a> by defence officials, military chiefs, and arms companies. Their persistent and damning criticisms<\/a> of MoD procurement strategy have been routinely ignored, with the military establishment encouraged to assume it can continue to pour money into military projects that are wholly inappropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the Treasury, so keen to target welfare, has turned a blind eye to military extravagance \u2013 fearful perhaps, like MPs, of being accused of damaging \u2018national security\u2019. That concept is deployed by ministers and Whitehall officials (often described as the \u2018permanent government\u2019) whenever they have no concrete or credible argument to support their claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protected contracts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, the NAO identified<\/a> a \u00a316.9 billion \u2018black hole\u2019 in Britain\u2019s defence equipment programme.<\/strong> In 2024, for the second successive year, the MoD did not publish an annual report on the state of the programme. Consequently, the NAO has not been able assess the government\u2019s defence procurement plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2025, the chairs of the Commons Defence and Public Accounts Committees wrote to the MoD\u2019s most senior official expressing<\/a> their \u2018deep frustration\u2019 at an \u2018unacceptable loss of transparency\u2026 severely undermining the ability of both committees to scrutinise the estimated \u00a3300bn of taxpayers\u2019 money to be spent on defence equipment over the next decade\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private contractors which receive public investment in military procurement programmes are the beneficiaries of such protected practices. In 2023\/24, 44 per cent of MoD contracts were non-competitive<\/a>, consuming \u00a316.4 billion of public investment. The \u2018security\u2019 provided by these contracts, as well as direct subsidies for research and design, is to arms companies and their shareholders benefiting from higher profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples<\/a> of egregious waste and incompetence which have cost taxpayers tens of billions are well documented. More recent ones include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Britain’s military waste<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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