On 30th July we wrote to Andy Burnham, the new Prime Minister to urge him to reconsider the Defence Investment Plan and instead focusing on investing in genuine, human security.
Choosing a different path for Britain – putting people before weapons, diplomacy before militarism and bringing hope, not fear
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has over 100 years’ experience seeking out the root causes of war and conflict, working through WILPF’s consultative status at the United Nations, and using negotiation and conciliation to bring an end to conflict.
As you take on your new position, on which we congratulate you, we are urging you to choose a different path for Britain; one that puts people before weapons, diplomacy before militarism and brings hope, not fear.
The world is facing the highest nuclear dangers since the Cold War. At precisely the moment when calm leadership and diplomacy are needed, the British government is raising international tensions by pouring hundreds of billions of pounds into military spending, making us the world’s third-largest nuclear weapons spender, only behind Russia and China. This does not make us safer. It fuels an increasingly dangerous global arms race while diverting desperately needed resources away from the urgent task of eradicating social deprivation, rebuilding our public services and tackling climate resilience.
You will be aware that over the recent heatwaves our lack of preparedness was easy to see. We need access to water at rail and bus stations, high streets, not to mention schools, play areas and hospitals. This will all cost but we need to thrive and survive more than have nuclear weapons, which of course can never be used.
The Defence Investment Plan will increase spending on Britain’s nuclear weapons programme by a further £64 billion over the next four years. This includes the purchase of the US F-35A nuclear- capable fighter jets. These jets will launch US nuclear bombs believed to be stationed at RAF Lakenheath and tie Britain even closer to the reckless Trump administration. The expansion breaches Britain’s own disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and is driving a new nuclear arms race. Given the devastating escalation in the Ukraine war, this is only increasing the risk of nuclear weapons being used in that conflict.
We urge you to do everything in your power to push for diplomacy as our WILPF sisters did in 1915. This will reduce tensions and de-escalate the nuclear threat by actively taking steps to disarm Britain’s nuclear weapons. This also means cancelling Britain’s replacement of Trident, Britain’s nuclear-armed submarine system, which is now expected to cost at least £240 billion over its 30-year lifetime. Britain’s re-armament also exposes its nuclear hypocrisy and undermines efforts to counter nuclear proliferation. We should however stress that we do reject Britain’s defence budget per se.
But for a fraction of this cost, you could restore pride to the UK’s traditional armed forces by ensuring that all personnel have proper and adequate uniforms and bases from which to operate.
The US-led illegal war on Iran risks deepening instability and threatens an all-out war in the Middle East and beyond. It is exacerbating global economic pressures already being felt by families across the UK. We urge you to push for a diplomatic solution to the crisis and ensure Britain gives no support for another illegal war. This means ruling out the use of British bases by the Trump administration and withdrawing all British military presence in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider region.
If you really wish to reindustrialise Britain, boost jobs and growth, we urge you to reverse the £300 billion military spending plan over the next four years. Far from kick-starting economic growth and boosting jobs, the previous government’s own data shows that military procurement creates fewer jobs than health, education, rail or social care. In fact, research by the Transition Security Project shows that the Defence Investment Plan will result in at least 10,000 net job losses. This is because double the number of jobs will be lost by the planned cuts to critical public services to pay for war and nuclear weapons.
Instead, invest in rebuilding hospitals, schools, improving public transport, building new homes and retrofitting existing ones – and refocus back to the critical work of energy transition. Britain should be leading the way with a state-backed defence diversification agency to strategically plan the redevelopment, training and new job creation for areas like Barrow-in-Furness that are currently dominated by arms companies and suffering amongst the highest levels of social deprivation in the country.
In addition, we urge the government to increase the budget for aid, diplomacy and peace-building to our international partners in potential conflict zones and in countries impacted by climate change – measures that will promote peace.
WILPF urges the government to exercise extreme caution about the use of AI in military equipment and nuclear weapons until research has fully understood the potential impacts of doing this. A 2026 paper by King’s College simulated nuclear war with decisions being made by AI and showed that AI chose to use escalation using nuclear weapons rather than de-escalation and other AIs chose counter-escalations.
Finally, as Prime Minister, you also have the opportunity to do the right thing for the nuclear test veterans. We know that you have supported their campaign for justice and compensation for many years. Exposed to British nuclear explosions in the Pacific Islands, neither these men or their descendants had knowledge of the deadly radioactive fall-out that has poisoned and killed them and continues to poison their families to this day. You have acknowledged the appalling cover-up by the Ministry of Defence. We urge you to rectify this and issue compensation now. There must also be an acknowledgement by this government of the overwhelming evidence that exposure to deadly radioactive fall-out has caused the disproportionate levels of generational and gestational cancers, birth defects, serious medical conditions and premature deaths of the families. We know that the impact on women and girls from radioactive fall-out is particularly devastating.
At such a critical time, we need a new direction from the British government – one that invests in protecting and saving lives, not destroying them.
Yours in peace
