Former Tory MP and soldier Bob Seely has said the UK needs to invest in an air defence system and said the country must spend more on defence.
Speaking on GB News, Bob Seely said: “Do we need it today? No. But do we need it in five years? Maybe. Are we going to need it in 15 years? Probably. So we need to get started and get working on these things now.
“This isn’t just my idea. We’ve had a commitment to a ballistic missile defence radar for 10 years, but we have done nothing about it, and we keep putting off these decisions.
“Germany is looking at getting an Iron Dome system, and I’ll come to the specs in a sec, because Iron Dome is actually only one part of this layered air defence system.
“But Germany is now getting one. Poland is now getting one. NATO is working together to have its skies covered, and we have a lot of the tech here.
“So it is in our economic interest as well as in our security interest that we are part of this programme that builds out, effectively, a European or a British air dome or an air shield.
“We should be careful about talking our country down. The Armed Forces are absolutely underfunded, but they still have a remarkable amount of good people and some pretty good kit.
“So do we need to be spending more on defence? Yes, because we live in an increasingly dangerous world, and we cannot penny pinching in the way that we’ve done without potentially catastrophic consequences.
“We have a lot of the tech for these air shields, so SkySabre, a medium range missile could very much be part of that.
“In my old constituency, on the Isle of Wight, we make the Royal Navy’s radars in at the BAe site in Cowes. So we have some of the bits potentially of this puzzle
“Iron Dome itself is the short range defence. Above that is something called David’s Sling, which is medium range, like the British SkySabre. And the long range is covered in Israel by something called the Arrow missile system and then they have the Patriot on of top of that. So all of that makes up the Israeli defence shield.
“And actually, I mean, if you look at what they have achieved, thousands of missiles coming into the country this year, hardly any civilian casualties.
“I was in Kharkiv in Ukraine three weeks ago, and that place is being hit every night by some pretty horrendous missiles, but also very large bombs. And the Ukrainians don’t have the air shield, and because of that, scores of Ukrainians are dying every month from Russian strikes.
“Is the will there from this Labour Government? No, absolutely not.
“Being an ex Tory MP I’m not exactly going to be Labour friendly, but you don’t have to be an ex Tory MP to really be shocked by how truly awful this government is being.
“And I’m not just talking about the lies over the black holes. I’m not just talking about snoughts in the trough from Keir Starmer leading by not setting an example.
“But also just the decision today on the Chagos Islands. I just think this government is surprisingly, breathtakingly bad. So no, I’m not expecting anything from this government. What I’m thinking is long term.
“If, as I hope, Kemi gets into the final two and Kemi wins, but whoever wins the Tory leadership, we need to be thinking much more strategically about the long term future of our country.
“Because clearly these student clowns currently in power, pardon my blunt language, they’re not going to be thinking about this.”
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