Wes Streeting addresses conference for the first time as Defence Secretary – his speech in full

Thank you, Jack – that was absolutely brilliant. You keep being ambitious and as for my own, like HMS Agamemnon last week, I think that ship has sailed.

But you Jack are a great example of the future that a stronger Britain can offer the next generation.

Jack’s proud of where he’s from.

Proud of where he works.

Proud of the contribution he is making to our nation.

So to Jack and all the young men and women who are building a stronger, wealthier, safer Britain – thank you.

Given events, you will understand that before getting into my speech today I want to say something about yesterday’s events around RAF Fairford.

You will understand there is a live police investigation and I can’t provide much further detail than that which is reported.

But I do want to say that our friendship with America is the closest alliance of any two nations on Earth, and we will always stand together against those who hate our freedom and those who wish us harm.

What we saw yesterday from our security services, our armed forces, and our police, was just a small glimpse of the extraordinary work they do every day, around the clock and around the world, behind the scenes and without recognition, to keep our country safe.

To all of them, from all of us, thank you.

It is great to be back in Liverpool.

Last year, I stood on this stage and spoke about a great legacy of the Attlee government.

Our National Health Service.

Built on a simple principle: to provide freedom from fear – fear that illness would bring financial ruin.

And that Labour government built another great institution too – NATO – based on the same principle: to provide freedom from fear – fear that tyranny would once again bring catastrophe to Europe.

Bevan created the NHS.

Bevin founded NATO.

Two institutions born of the same generation.

Rooted in the same belief in security.

One built security at home.

The other built security with our allies abroad.

And beneath them both lies the same conviction: solidarity.

The belief that an injury to one is an injury to all.

But it is easy to believe in solidarity when it costs nothing.

The test comes when another nation needs us.

And I am proud that we’ve shown throughout our history that when allies call, Britain answers.

Nowhere has this been clearer than Ukraine.

Ukrainians did not ask for this war.

Putin invaded their country.

I saw the consequences of his imperialism first hand when I visited Kyiv this summer.

The bombed-out shopping centres.

The make-do shelters in underground carparks.

Children’s toys lying in the rubble of the homes that Putin destroyed.

Ukraine’s frontline is the frontline for freedom and democracy everywhere.

So, when a Ukrainian trade unionist leaves their workplace, puts on a uniform and goes to defend their family from invasion, I know whose side the Labour movement should be on.

Theirs.

When a Ukrainian nurse treats casualties under drone attack, I know whose side we should be on.

Hers.

When Ukrainian children spend their nights in underground shelters because Russian missiles are overhead, I know where our solidarity belongs.

With them.

So, to President Zelenskyy and our friends in Ukraine:

Yesterday, today, tomorrow, we are with you for as long as it takes.

Slava Ukraini.

Closer to home, those who serve in our armed forces do so knowing they may be asked to pay the ultimate price for our collective freedom.

I’m proud of the work John Healey started for our people: the biggest pay rise in years, investment in housing for our families, and action to support our veterans.

For many of those men and women, their service requires them to work in the shadows, so that the rest of us can go about our lives in safety and with confidence.

Whether in our intelligence services or our special forces, they serve quietly, neither seeking nor receiving the public recognition their courage, professionalism and quiet dedication deserve.

Secrecy does not negate the need for scrutiny.

And our special forces don’t ask for special treatment.

They themselves set the highest standards for those who wear the uniform.

All they ask in return is that the historic misconduct of a few is not used to smear the heroism and integrity of the many.

Because they will always have our back.

And as Defence Secretary I will always have theirs.

We are living in a new age of insecurity.

It is not yet clear whether freedom or tyranny will define the 21st century.

War has returned to Europe.

Old alliances are being tested.

Warfare is as tough, as bloody, and as deadly as it has ever been.

But it is also being transformed by drones, by data, and by digital networks, in a way which would have been unrecognisable even when the war in Ukraine began.

The conclusion is simple.

We need to step up.

We need to spend more.

And friends, we are.

With the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War.

And a cast iron guarantee to honour the promise we made to our NATO allies, to spend 3.5% of GDP on core defence by 2035.

And we are well on our way with our investment plan.

We are putting half a billion pounds into our UK Commando Force, giving them the latest drone technology as they help defend NATO’s High North.

Over a billion pounds will help upgrade our British-made Typhoons.

We will invest over 8 billion pounds to build a sixth-generation fighter jet, along with partners around the world, to ensure we can dominate the skies in decades to come.

At sea, 1.3 billion pounds will give our Royal Navy new autonomous ships and underwater vessels to hunt threats, protect our waters and keep our enemies at a distance.

And we are renewing another great Labour achievement, the protection provided every day by our nuclear deterrent.

I know that more spending on defence comes with choices and trade-offs.

But our critics on the right need to understand that you don’t make your country stronger by making our people poorer.

And I also have to say directly to some of our critics on the left:

You are not defending our public services by attacking investment in our national defences.

As a Labour Defence Secretary called Mr Healey once said:

“Once we cut defence expenditure to the extent where our security is imperilled, we have no houses, we have no hospitals, we have no schools. We have a heap of cinders.”

Denis Healey was right in 1969, and another Mr Healey called John was right to demand more when he was Defence Secretary just this year.

In this Labour Chancellor we have a champion for defence.

He knows it is not ‘either/or’ when it comes to public services and national security.

They depend upon one another.

But with more money, comes greater responsibility.

Every pound the Ministry of Defence spends must be spent well.

And so today I make a promise:

The Ministry of Defence I lead will be at the heart of our Prime Minister’s mission to reindustrialise Britain.

Giving our young people skills, just like we’ve given Jack, to earn a good wage, in a good job, in their part of the country.

Because there is neither an economic nor a moral justification for Britain’s defence sector hiring thousands of workers from abroad, when we have one million young people out of work here at home.

But solving that problem needs more than words.

It demands bold action.

And that is why today, the Chancellor and I are taking one of the biggest defence procurement decisions in a generation.

The contract to build the docks for our nuclear subs.

Our ultimate deterrent.

Six billion pounds worth of work.

Today, we commit to that contract staying in this country.

Supporting thousands of British jobs, for years to come.

That is what growth in every post code means in practice.

Backing Britain by buying British.

Nowhere is the Prime Minister’s appeal for problem solving, rather than point scoring, more relevant than on defence and national security.

The Labour Party has a proud record of standing with our political opponents in the national interest.

Clem Attlee did with Winston Churchill when he joined the Wartime Coalition.

Michael Foot supported Margaret Thatcher when Argentina invaded the Falklands.

And Keir Starmer supported Boris Johnson’s leadership on Ukraine.

But I am afraid we haven’t seen that responsible leadership from the current Leader of the Opposition.

Nor have we seen her party taking any responsibility for the consequences of their failure to fund defence.

The smallest army since the Napoleonic Wars.

Every single recruitment target missed.

Morale down 20%.

Almost every equipment programme over-budget, behind schedule – often both.

Our Armed Forces, in the words of their own Defence Secretary: “hollowed-out and under-funded”.

So if Kemi Badenoch wants to go toe to toe with Labour on defence, we will wipe the floor with the Tories’ so comprehensively they will see their abysmal record reflected back at them.

In the face of aggression from Russia and terrorism from those who hate our freedom, unity is strength.

Let our allies and our adversaries hear this loud and clear: regardless of which party is leading in the polls or in parliament, our nation stands united.

United behind our armed forces.

United with Ukraine.

United with NATO against Russian aggression.

When it comes to keeping our country safe, we are far more united, and have far more in common, than the things that divide us.

So let’s build that kind of politics. Problem solving not point scoring.

At no point in my lifetime has the threat of war loomed as large as it does today.

Our adversaries are more dangerous, across more domains, and they are on our doorstep.

To prevent the worst, we must prepare for it. We must meet this moment with action and with strength.

John Healey and Dan Jarvis put in the hard yards to get the right plans and the right funding in place.

Defence spending, up.

Morale, up.

New kit and equipment in the hands of our armed forces.

Lots done, but a lot more still to do.

Because defending our country means more than strengthening our armed forces. It means strengthening the country they defend.

Our enemies feed on division and fear.

Our leader, our Prime Minister, Andy Burnham is giving us hope again.

Together, with this Labour Prime Minister and this Labour Government, we will build a country ready to fight and a Britain worth fighting for.

Thank you.

READ MORE: Labour Party Conference 2026: Full LabourList events programme, revealed

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