CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves’s £2 billion boost to arms companies under the pretence of “driving growth” were dismissed as “nonsense” by campaigners today.

Visiting Rosyth Naval Dockyard in Fife today, Ms Reeves announced an increase UK Export Finance (UKEF) lending capacity, from £8bn to £10bn, in a bid to boost sales of British-made missiles, aircraft and armoured vehicles on the international market.

The announcement comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calls for a “reshaping” of the economy towards arms production. The government aims to ramp up military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, while taking an axe to the international development budget and threatening to wipe billions from social security funding.

Ms Reeves said: “This increase to UKEF’s lending capability is our industrial strategy in action, bolstering our defence industry and supply chains, creating jobs and driving growth across the UK.

“We are strengthening our national defence, kickstarting economic growth and delivering the stability we need to keep us safe.”

Slamming the claims, CND general secretary Sophie Bolt told the Star: “Labour continues to justify increasing billions of pounds to the military budget while cutting vital areas like health and welfare, by arguing that growing its arms industry will help the wider economy.

“But research from the Scottish government shows that military spending has one of the lowest ‘employment multipliers’ of all economic categories, sitting at 70th out of 100, while health spending ranks first.

“What we’re seeing is the syphoning of billions in public funds to arms and nuclear firms who continue to post record profits while the population suffers from an ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

“Britain’s arms export regime needs more scrutiny, not more government financing as so-called ‘allies’ like Saudi Arabia and Israel continue to receive British-made arms and components – despite a growing body of evidence showing serious breaches of international law.”  

Stop the War Scotland secretary Sophie Johnson added: “The government is making a political choice to bump up the profits made by the same companies whose portfolios are already soaring off the back of the destruction of Gaza and Ukraine.

“Whilst we are facing huge cuts to the public sector and social security, the idea that Reeves’s plan will ‘protect working people’ is nonsense. 

“Instead, the government is continuing to answer Trump’s calls to bolster defence.

“None of this will make Britain – or the world – safer but the opposite.”