Defence expert and army reservist Peter Apps joined The Power Team team to dissect the latest episode and discuss how a future Labour Government might step up to international security challenges

Sir Lawrence Freedman, the renowned academic (and Sam’s dad!), told Ayesha and Sam in the latest episode that he believed the UK was facing its gravest challenge since the Second World War and that a Labour Government would need to increase defence spending significantly.

Speaking on The Debrief on Monday this week, hosted by Flo Hutchings, Peter agreed and warned that the UK would need to “step up” to prepare to fight a future war to deter further Russian aggression and maintain European security.

Joining from Washington DC, The Power Test co-founder Ed Owen, a former special adviser in the UK Foreign Office, believed that the need to bolster defence and security in Europe would encourage a future Labour Government to build closer ties with the EU, not least in the event of a Trump Presidency being elected.

Peter believed, however, that influential foreign and security experts close to Trump would ensure that some of the more lurid threats to undermine NATO would not, in fact, be carried through.

The Power Test's Commissioning Editor, Charlotte Aldritt, said that increasing defence spending significantly would put a huge amount of pressure on other domestic policy priorities. But, she felt that Labour would win public support for a strong response to the challenging events in Ukraine.

Responding to Sir Lawrence’s concerns about Labour pursuing an “ethical foreign policy”, Peter felt David Lammy’s recent essay laying out Labour’s thinking rightly stressed the need for strong values to underpin policy.

With such foundational principles in place, he said, there would be a public acceptance of the need, at times, to exercise a pragmatic approach towards regimes and governments the UK had to engage with but were not always to our liking.

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