The decision to cut billions from support for vulnerable people while refusing to tax the wealthy shows how far our party has drifted from its core purpose, writes BRIAN LEISHMAN MP
Europe’s ‘nuclear umbrella’ risks catastrophic escalation
As Macron and Merz propose French nuclear-armed jets be stationed in Poland and Germany, the dangerous implications for peace and the possibility of nuclear confrontation grow, warns SOPHIE BOLT

AS Trump brutally hammers out a settlement for Ukraine and Russia, he’s also been hammering Europe for vast, cold-war levels of military spending. And European leaders seem very keen to oblige.
Along with Keir Starmer’s so-called peace plan for a 30,000-strong European army, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz are pushing for a European “nuclear umbrella” — where France could deploy its nuclear-capable jets outside its borders. Merz also wants Britain to step up and deploy its British nuclear submarines to “defend” Europe against Russian aggression.
So what does this “nuclear umbrella” really mean in practice — and what are the risks?
More from this author

The use of long-range weapons marks a terrifying escalation as Biden and Starmer ignore the growing calls for peace from ordinary Ukrainians and Russians in favour of more carnage, writes SOPHIE BOLT

Overcoming US global dominance is key: the Star publishes a speech from SOPHIE BOLT, from Saturday’s CND World We Want conference
Similar stories

Speaking to Ben Chacko, CND’s new leader SOPHIE BOLT outlines her organisation’s ambitious plans, from peace camps to base blockades to mass mobilisation, to fight the rising nuclear madness our politicians ignore

The use of long-range weapons marks a terrifying escalation as Biden and Starmer ignore the growing calls for peace from ordinary Ukrainians and Russians in favour of more carnage, writes SOPHIE BOLT

As tensions rise in Ukraine and Gaza, KATE HUDSON argues that Western militarisation and Nato expansion bring us closer to nuclear catastrophe — we must heed the lessons of history