Iain Dale and Denise Headley debate Boris Johnson's £16.5bn defence spending boost

19 November 2020, 21:07

By Sam Sholli

This is the moment LBC presenters Iain Dale and Denise Headley debated the Government's latest defence spending increase.

The Government has committed to spending £16.5bn over four years to upgrade the UK's armed forces.

Boris Johnson has said UK warships and combat vehicles will carry "directed energy weapons" to destroy targets with "inexhaustible lasers" as a result of the investment.

The Prime Minister also committed to renewing the UK's nuclear deterrent as well as increasing shipbuilding in the UK.

PM unveils £16.5bn boost for military with 'energy weapons' on ships and vehicles

Responding to the spending increase, Denise asked Iain: "Who are we actually fighting? Who is our enemy?"

Iain replied: "Clearly the enemies are people who are trying to attack this country at the moment, predominantly in cyberspace but not exclusively that.

"If you visit the operations room in GCHQ, you can see where the threats are coming from and they're mostly coming from China, North Korea and Russia. So if you want to identify three enemies, there you go."

Boris Johnson sets out details of defence spending boost

In response to Denise raising the subject of the Falklands War, Iain said: "Why did that happen? It happened in part because the Callaghan government and the Thatcher government cut our defence budget.

"And the Argentinians thought 'they're not taking the Falklands seriously anymore so we will invade'."

However, Denise told Iain that she looking at the defence spending increase and thinking about where else the money could be spent.