The US is right that Europe must work more closely together on defence, due to Russia threat

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister set out the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War. This commitment will protect British people in what is a new era for national security, a new era of intensifying geopolitical competition and conflict.

Defence spending is set increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP from April 2027, with an ambition to reach 3 per cent in the next Parliament. Our reinvigorated approach to the UK’s defence industry will drive economic growth and create jobs across the UK – not least in Scotland - while bolstering national security and protecting borders.

In a town called Bucha, Russian soldiers handcuffed Ukrainian civilians and shot them in the head. People in that town gathered up the bodies of their friends, their family, brothers and sisters and buried them in a mass grave.

This week marks the third anniversary of Russia’s barbaric, illegal war in Ukraine. I’ve been privileged to meet some of the Ukrainians who have had to flee the country and who have been welcomed here in Scotland.

And earlier this week we saw communities across Scotland gathering to show their ongoing solidarity with our friends in Ukraine. This is an insecure and uncertain world and it requires a generational response.

This is a world where we can’t afford to be a prisoner of the previous assumptions on European defence, peace and security underpinned by the guarantees of the US.

The peace dividend we have enjoyed since the fall of the Berlin Wall looks as though it is over. That is why the UK will step up to increase spending on defence to 2.5 per cent of GDP from April 2027, which will mean an extra £13.4 billion a year in public spending on defence.

We are a nation that will not be cowed by threats or tyranny. And it’s not just moral urgency that demands this. It is also in our national interest.

One of the great lessons of our history is that instability in Europe always washes up on our shores. Europeans, including the United Kingdom, have to do more for our defence and security.

We must work closely together to resolve this challenge. The US is right about that. In this new era, we can’t cling to the comforts of the past.

That response will also offer the potential for good jobs and work for people in Scotland. More than £2 billion was spent by the Ministry of Defence in Scotland last year. The industry in Scotland employs more than 30,000 people around 1500 of which are apprentices.

The announcement on Tuesday will not be without controversy. It is not an easy decision to make.

However, once again, as the UK government, as part of our Plan for Change, is putting the national interest first with tough and necessary choices on spending.

Opposition parties say they support the increase in spending, oppose how we are paying for it, but won’t outline an alternative. Some opposition parties won’t even engage with the defence industry in Scotland at all. This isn’t serious or credible.

This is about peace in Europe and national security in a unstable and changing world.

Former SNP MP Stewart McDonald is right when he says “it would be an act of unpardonable folly to behave as though Scotland has no role to play”.

The first duty of any government is to keep its people safe. In the Commons the Prime Minister set out how the UK will be stepping up to meet this generational challenge with a generational response.

- Ian Murray is secretary of State for Scotland.