In a speech on Monday, Vernon Coaker MP, Shadow Defence Secretary, will set out Labour’s ambitious and realistic vision for Britain’s defence and security.
 
Highlighting the withdrawal from Afghanistan and Germany, as well as the continuing need for fiscal discipline at the Ministry of Defence, he will say that UK defence is at a crossroads. He will argue that the time is right for a genuine, far-reaching debate about the role Britain’s defence forces can and should play in the world.
 
Mr Coaker will call for a more inclusive and open discussion about the UK’s strategic direction in the run up to the next Strategic Defence and Security Review (scheduled for Autumn 2015). Labour and many others have heavily criticised the Government’s 2010 SDSR as being fundamentally flawed for lacking in strategy.
 
Citing the evolving security landscape, he will say that Britain needs to be prepared to tackle a growing number of known and unknown threats, emanating from a variety of different sources. In light of the increasing threat posed by cyber warfare, he will announce that Labour will consult on the prospect of creating a statutory requirement for all private companies to report serious cyber-attacks threatening the UK’s national infrastructure.
 
With defence budgets under increasing pressure, we must do more with less and be realistic about what the UK can achieve alone. He will say we must project smart power, developing our partnerships with existing allies and cultivating new ones, in order to amplify our international influence. In doing so, we must ensure that our Forces are equipped with the language skills, and the depth of historical, cultural and strategic knowledge that will be required for such re-orientation.
 
Labour recognises the importance of defence engagement for stabilisation and upstream conflict prevention in helping to deter future threats and conflicts. Mr Coaker will say Labour wish to see the UK continuing and deepening its support for UN peacekeeping operations to help provide vital security and stability across the world. 
 
Vernon Coaker MP, shadow Defence Secretary, speaking ahead of his speech on Monday, said:
 
“With UK defence at a crossroads, the time is now right to consider what role we want our Forces to play in the world.
 
“We cannot afford for the next Strategic Defence and Security Review to be solely Treasury-led. Instead, we must ensure that the Review provides the long-term direction that UK defence and security requires – one that is fiscally realistic and strategically ambitious.
 
“We are ambitious about the positive role that the UK Armed Forces and defence strategy can play in the world. And we are realistic in that we know we must strengthen and deepen our partnerships with existing allies, and seek to cultivate new ones, if we are to achieve our strategic objectives.”
 
Ends
 
Notes to Editors
 
UN Peacekeeping
 
The UK has long been an active contributor to UN peacekeeping missions and is the fifth highest provider of assessed contributions to the UN peacekeeping budget (2013-15), behind the US, Japan, France and Germany.
 
British military personnel are currently deployed on three UN peacekeeping missions: UN peace-keeping operations in Cyprus (UNFICYP); Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO); and South Sudan (UNMISS).
 
The nature of the role UK military personnel can play within UK peacekeeping will depend on the mandate of individual missions.
 
As well as infantry soldiers, there is a growing need for specialised personnel, referred to as ‘enablers’, in such missions. These skilled soldiers may include engineers, logistics specialists, communication experts and medical personnel. Given the high levels of expertise within the UK Armed Forces, our service personnel would be well suited to such roles.
 
In this respect, UK personnel in future peacekeeping operations may be called upon to carry out a host of activities, including training and capacity building, the facilitation of humanitarian activities, helping to reform security sectors, construction and engineering support, as well as the more traditional forms of stabilisation activities.
 
Cyber warfare
 
The UK faces up to 1,000 cyber attacks every hour, which is now estimated to cost the UK £20-40 billion annually. The Government has committed £650m over four years to the Cyber Security Programme, with only 14% of this been allocated to the MoD. This total investment equates to 0.6% of the £27bn it is estimated the UK loses through cyber crime every year. The Government has also established a UK Cyber Security Strategy, involving the Cabinet Office Cyber Security Strategy (CSS) and the Defence Cyber Operations Group (DCOG).
 
Labour has already called on the Government to ensure that every company working with the Ministry of Defence, regardless of its size or the scale of its work, signs up to a cyber-security charter. This will ensure hackers can’t use small suppliers to get into the systems of the major defence companies or the Ministry of Defence itself.
 
Building upon this, Labour will consult on the prospect of creating a statutory requirement for all private companies to report serious cyber-attacks threatening the UK’s national infrastructure.
 
The consultation process would address the overall viability of such a requirement, and look to address a number of issues, such as:
 
An appropriate measure for the scale and impact of such cyber-attacks;
-  What constitutes national infrastructure and what size of company would this apply to;
-  Whether there would be any grounds for exemption and, if so, what these would be;
-  The best mechanism by which reporting could take place and the extent of information which would be collected;
-  Whether such reporting be open or closed;
-  The impact that such reporting may have and the extent to which it would better inform the UK’s cyber security strategy.