LABOUR faces calls to rethink its defence priorities after campaigners warned that nuclear expansion and rising military budgets were undermining real security.

Speaking at a fringe event organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) during the Labour Party conference, CND general secretary Sophie Bolt said the government was “playing a central role” in escalating global nuclear tensions.

She condemned Labour’s Strategic Defence Review as being “all about preparing Britain for war [and] fighting readiness,” and criticised plans to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy warned that “the existence of nuclear weapons rests on the idea that some lives matter more than others,” arguing that the nuclear order entrenches racism and colonial power.

Friends of the Earth chief executive Asad Rehman linked militarism directly to climate breakdown, saying: “Real security is ecological, and it’s social, and it’s justice.”

He called for global demilitarisation and reparations to the global South.

The panel urged Labour to redirect resources into communities, public services and climate action.