The UK is examining all possible options when it comes to the US president-elect Donald Trump’s approach to Ukraine, the chief secretary to the Treasury has said, as the UK’s chief of the defence staff said approximately 1,500 Russian troops were being killed and injured every day.
Whitehall officials are “considering and planning lots of different scenarios”, Darren Jones told Sky News on Sunday. During the US election campaign, Trump said he would find a solution to end the war “within a day”, but did not explain how he would do so. His vice-president nominee, JD Vance, has been vociferously opposed to providing more funds to support Ukraine.
Jones said the UK would not be stepping back from its own commitments. “We don’t want any countenance of the idea that we’re stepping back from that. That’s why we’re offering them £3bn a year, which you know, in the fiscal context here in the UK, is difficult but the right decision for us,” he said.
“Officials will be considering and planning lots of different scenarios – as they would do under any administration – to make sure that the UK is in the strongest possible position.”
However, Jones said he would not commit to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence by the end of the current parliament, saying that security and defence were a priority but that meant “trade-offs” in other areas.
Jones was also scathing about the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s offer to help the Labour government work with Donald Trump, saying: “The counterfactual here is that we do not have influence and we do not have relationships. That’s just not true.
“I think [Mr Farage] should focus on working with his constituents in Clacton who deserve a bit of a full-time MP as opposed to a transatlantic commentator.”
Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, the UK’s chief of the defence staff, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, said Russia was still paying an “extraordinary price” for Vladimir Putin’s invasion and October was the worst month for losses since the conflict began in February 2022.
“Russia is about to suffer 700,000 people killed or wounded – the enormous pain and suffering that the Russian nation is having to bear because of Putin’s ambition,” he told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, adding that the only gains were “tiny increments of land”.
The cost of the war, which he put at more than 40% of public expenditure on defence and security, was also “an enormous drain” on Russia.
Jones said a target to be reached for defence spending would be announced but needed to wait for the strategic defence review.
He told Sky News: “Today, we’re spending 2.3%. The question is how you spend that but defending the country is a non-negotiable. That is not a trade-off; the trade-off is then with other areas of public spending. Now, are we defending the country today? Absolutely we are. Do we want to make sure we’re hitting our Nato obligations? Absolutely we do.
“But the strategic defence review will start to answer some of the questions, which is beyond that – what more does the UK want to offer as part of our global alliances? And that’s where you start.”
