'Threats are growing across the world': Starmer says defence was main focus of his Nato agenda
As Starmer made his debut on the world stage, he stressed the importance of global security, as ITV News' Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana reports
At the end of his first international summit as Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer said he had come three and a half thousand miles to Washington DC in his first week because every policy he was pursuing to improve people's lives first "depends on our security".
The PM argued that defence was the bedrock for his entire agenda.
The argument is a key one that Labour has been trying to make since he first became leader. Key strategists believed that one of the major reasons for voters' rejection of Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 was the idea that he was not strong enough on national security.
The perceived threat now is worse than it has been for decades.
This Nato summit was designed to celebrate 75 years of the world's most enduring military alliance - but it landed at an ominous moment for the world.
As Starmer concluded at a press conference to mark the end of his time at the summit, he said: "The generational threat of Russia… aided by the likes of North Korea and Iran. Conflicts rage across the Middle East and North Africa. The challenge of China. Terrorism."
Earlier this week, General Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing chief of the British army, told the Times that this moment is now as dangerous for the world as it was back in 1945.
When I asked the new defence secretary, John Healey, if that is true, he responded: "It is right. Threats are growing across the world but here in Europe, we have war, in Europe for the first time for decades.
"We have a decade of growing aggression from Russia and defence and security must be and will be at the heart of this new government."
When I asked how big that threat could be, he added that cyberattacks, sabotage and targeted killings, have already happened - even on British soil.
"So we perhaps haven't woken up fast enough to the way that Putin is mounting this campaign of aggression against the West and what we stand for," he said.
So what is the British government's answer?
Starmer spoke about the necessity of international institutions, insisting that under his premiership Britain would strengthen ties with the EU and commit to those global bodies.
He talked about £ 3 billion a year for Ukraine - and a commitment to Ukraine's "irreversible path to full NATO membership".
He also stressed that the Nato target for countries spending 2% of GDP on defence was now met by 23 countries (up from three a decade ago) and that Britain is leading the pack.
He said he would aim for 2.5% - but only within our fiscal rules. That is a big if, of course.
The government talks confidently of economic growth being achieved to meet all these spending demands - but just last week Andy Haldane, the former chief economist at the Bank of England, argued that planning reforms, though welcome, were unlikely to take us far enough.
He told ITV's Peston programme that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had never scored growth in the medium term on the back of planning and suggested instead considering relaxing the fiscal rules just slightly to allow for public investment.
Starmer won't go there, because, alongside convincing voters that Labour would look after their national security, he is convinced that tough spending rules will persuade people the party can be trusted with their financial security.
But that leaves the government with a dilemma. The spending demands keep building up.
Not just on a world stage, but at home, where the PM admitted he was shocked by the state of prison overcrowding and is under pressure to solve doctor's strikes.
If those demands overflow before such growth is realised, then the public will want solutions- or Starmer's honeymoon period could be over quicker than he hoped.
Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…